CoreLogic Buys Mississippi-Based Appraisal Software Maker for $475 million

Real estate information provider CoreLogic is buying Oxford, Miss.-based FNC Inc. for $475 million.

CoreLogic, based in Irvine, Calif., announced the purchase Dec. 17, saying it wants to integrate FNC’s real estate appraisal software into its products.

“We expect property valuation to be an area of significant future domestic and international growth,” CoreLogic CEO Anand Nallathambi said in a statement.

FNC Marketing Director Jon Fisher tells The Oxford Eagle that FNC will maintain its operations in Oxford, where the company is building a $20 million corporate headquarters, promising to more than double its workforce to 600.

The sale is scheduled to close by March 31, with CoreLogic using cash and borrowing money to pay for it. The company said the FNC acquisition would add to profit in 2016, excluding certain fees and accounting items. CoreLogic said the purchase price is 13.5 times FNC’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.

CoreLogic bought an appraisal service company, LandSafe Appraisal Services, from Bank of America for $122 million earlier this year.

Launched in 1995 by Bill Rayburn and three other University of Mississippi business professors, FNC said set out to find ways to streamline lenders’ mortgage-approval processes. CoreLogic said FNC’s software is used by 18 of the 20 largest American banks and connects to 80,000 appraisers, property inspectors and title insurers. FNC’s software helps automate some of the steps required in qualifying for a mortgage or selling a property.

State and local governments are contributing more than $6.5 million toward FNC’s new 68,000 square-foot headquarters near the intersection of Mississippi 7 and Mississippi 6 on the south side of Oxford. The Mississippi Development Authority gave FNC $4 million for site preparation and a federal community development grant for $2 million to build an access road. Oxford, Lafayette County and FNC each contributed $71,000 for the road. The state is giving another $300,000 for public improvements and $100,000 for worker training for the complex, which is supposed to open next year.