Updated: PennyMac Falls in First Day After IPO

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Private National Mortgage Acceptance Co., the company started by former Countrywide Financial Corp. executives, raised $320 million in an initial public offering Wednesday that was 20 percent less than originally planned.

Shares closed down 90 cents, or 4.5 percent, to $19.10 in its first full day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange Thursday. The stock’s ticker symbol is PMT.

The Calabasas company, founded last year to invest in distressed mortgages, priced 16 million shares at $20 each. The proceeds fell short of the $400 million the company hoped to raise.

This marks the first local IPO since North Hollywood hospital patient management company IPC the Hospitalist Co. Inc. went public in January 2008.

PennyMac has said it intends to use proceeds from the IPO to invest in three areas: mortgage portfolios from failed banks being liquidated by regulators, loans acquired through the U.S. Treasury Dept.’s Public-Private Investment Program and loans directly acquired from other banks.

Backed by money manager BlackRock Inc. and hedge fund Highfields Capital Management, PennyMac has raised more than $500 million from private investors that it has used to buy portfolios of distressed mortgages, which it plans to revive through loan modification and other programs.

To go public, the company created a subsidiary structured as a real estate investment trust, known as PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust, which will effectively be the operating arm of the company.

PennyMac has been controversial, with critics assailing its founders as profiting from risky mortgage loans they promoted while at Countrywide. PennyMac was started by Stanford Kurland, the former No. 2 executive at Countrywide behind Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo. At least 10 other PennyMac executives came from Countrywide.

A major subprime lender, Countrywide suffered considerable loan losses before being sold at a fire-sale price last year to Bank of America Corp. Mozilo and two other former Countrywide executives were recently sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission for allegedly misleading shareholders as the company was deteriorating. No PennyMac executives were named in the SEC lawsuit.

PennyMac’s offering was underwritten by Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank. The stock will trade on the New York Stock Exchange beginning Thursday under the symbol “PMT.”