Last year, Ann Arbor–based Home Point Financial reported a loss of more than $160 million. As rising interest rates crushed its wholesale mortgage lending business, it shrank its staff from 4,000 people to fewer than 1,000. But in March, president and CEO Willie Newman saw a spring turnaround: He predicted that originations would bottom out in the company’s first quarter, and that the company would be “operationally profitable in the second quarter” (Up Front, April).

The company’s second quarter will arrive this month—but Home Point won’t be making any loans. In early April, it announced it was selling its lending business to Tucson, Arizona–based The Loan Store. According to the press release, Home Point will “hold an equity interest in The Loan Store, enabling it and our shareholders to participate in The Loan Store’s potential future success.”

Home Point’s president of originations, Phil Shoemaker, will join The Loan Store as its CEO. Home Point will continue to operate with Newman at the helm, but going forward will focus on servicing existing mortgages. That’s a much smaller business: Once valued at $1.6 billion, its market capitalization had shrunk to about $250 million in mid-April.

Spokesperson Brad Pettiford says the company was down to about 500 people before the sale. About 350 are being laid off, with another 100 following Shoemaker to The Loan Store.