American Home Mortgage Investment Corp. Completes Acquisition of Flower Bank, fsb

MELVILLE, N.Y., Oct. 19  /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- American Home Mortgage Investment Corp. (NYSE:AHM) announced today that, through its subsidiary American Home Mortgage Holdings, Inc., it has completed the acquisition of Flower Bank, fsb of Chicago, Illinois.

Michael Strauss, American Home's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer commented, "I am very pleased by our acquisition of Flower Bank.  Our projections show that Flower will not have a significant impact on our financial results in the near future.  Over time, however, our strategy is to, through Flower; diversify our sources of earnings and revenues, thereby becoming a more diversified, multi-dimensional financial services company.  In particular, we intend to leverage our customer acquisition costs by offering our existing customers and the general public, deposit accounts and additional lines of consumer credit.

I want to welcome Flower's existing staff into the American Home family and thank them for their assistance in making for an orderly transition of Flower's ownership."

In connection with its acquisition, American Home is recapitalizing Flower through a $50 million investment in its new subsidiary.  In addition, American Home will deposit at Flower approximately $350 million of its mortgage servicing escrow balances.  Flower is expected to hold mortgages, consumer loans and securities as its primary assets, and fund its holdings through deposits including the escrow balances.  American Home expects to record approximately $17 million of goodwill as a result of the Flower acquisition.

American Home Mortgage Investment Corp. is a mortgage real estate investment trust ("REIT") focused on earning net interest income from self-originated loans and mortgage-backed securities, and, through its taxable subsidiaries, from originating and selling mortgage loans and servicing mortgage loans for institutional investors.  Mortgages are originated through a network of loan production offices and mortgage brokers as well as purchased from correspondent lenders, and are serviced at the Company's Irving, Texas servicing center.  For additional information, please visit the Company's website at http://www.americanhm.com/.

This news release contains "forward-looking statements" that are based upon expectations, estimates, forecasts, projections and assumptions. Any statement in this news release that is not a statement of historical fact, including, but not limited to, earnings guidance and forecasts, projections of financial results and loan origination volume, expected future financial position, dividend plans or business strategy, and any other statements of plans, expectations, objectives, estimates and beliefs, is a forward looking statement. Words such as "look forward," "will," "anticipate," "may," "expect," "plan," "believe," "intend," "opportunity," "potential," and similar words, or the negatives of those words, are intended to identify forward- looking statements. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that are difficult to predict, and are not guarantees of future performance. As a result, actual future events may differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed in or implied by this news release. Specific factors that might cause such a difference include, but are not limited to: American Home's limited operating history with respect to its portfolio strategy; the potential fluctuations in American Home's operating results; American Home's potential need for additional capital; the direction of interest rates and their subsequent effect on the business of American Home and its subsidiaries; risks associated with the use of leverage; changes in federal and state tax laws affecting REITs; federal and state regulation of mortgage banking; and those risks and uncertainties discussed in filings made by American Home with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Such forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain, and stockholders must recognize that actual results may differ from expectations. American Home does not assume any responsibility, and expressly disclaims any responsibility, to issue updates to any forward- looking statements discussed in this news release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. 

DATASOURCE: American Home Mortgage Investment Corp.



CONTACT:  Mary M. Feder, Vice President, Investor Relations,

[phone], 



Web site:  http://www.americanhm.com/ 

Copyright