A major shake up in the senior ranks at Arch Bay Capital has taken place with several departures from the company, according to three nonperforming loan investors that have conducted business with the firm.
At deadline, Arch Bay CEO Shawn Miller and chief investment officer Steven Davis had not returned telephone calls for two days. The company is based in Irvine, Calif.
Arch Bay’s backers include private equity money, including a group called York Capital. York did not return a telephone call placed to them Friday morning.
One NPL investor said senior management at Arch Bay was summoned to York for a recent meeting. “York didn’t like what they heard, confiscated their laptops and that was it,” said this investor, requesting his name not be used.
Another NPL invested added: “They [senior management] got locked out. The York guys are taking over.”
Little is known about Arch Bay’s NPL investing activities. The firm has kept a tight lip on its staff, and has declined to talk publicly about its deals. But players in the market say the firm has bought roughly $1 billion of NPLs since 2009, including a $600 million portfolio of troubled mortgages from Wells Fargo & Co.
About a year ago Arch Bay took at stab at starting a de novo mortgage company, but then pulled the plug on the idea after hiring several employees.
Until recently, Arch Bay billed itself as “one of the nation’s leading investment firms specializing in the real estate and mortgage industries.”
