
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, October 17, 1995                   TAG: 9510170051
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: CHARLOTTE, N.C.                                LENGTH: Medium

FIRST UNION REPORTEDLY BIDS FOR PRUDENTIAL MORTGAGES

First Union Corp. is negotiating to buy all or part of Prudential Insurance Co. of America's large mortgage business, according to a report Monday by The Wall Street Journal.

The Prudential unit originates and services residential mortgages. Its portfolio of $78 billion in loans makes it one of the biggest mortgage operations in America.

It said First Union, parent of Roanoke-based First Union National Bank of Virginia, may team up with Norwest Corp. of Minneapolis on a joint bid for a substantial portion of the Prudential unit or bid on its own for part of the business.

The newspaper cited unidentified people familiar with the negotiations.

First Union and Norwest declined to comment. Rick Matthews, a spokesman for Prudential, said the company has no definitive agreement and will not ``confirm anything until we have an agreement.''

Prudential's mortgage subsidiary has been up for sale since March. The Journal said experts estimate it could fetch as much as $1 billion.

First Union is close to completing its $5.4 billion merger with First Fidelity Bancorp, which also is based in Newark.

Dean Witter Reynolds analyst Anthony Davis told the Journal that means First Union is about to enter states such as New York, Pennsylvania and Connecticut, which he described as ``markets with a higher per-capita income'' than some of First Union's current markets in southern states.

First Union needs the capability to service the larger, jumbo mortgages that are more common in the new markets, he said.

With a mortgage-servicing portfolio of about $37 billion, First Union ranks about 15th in size in the industry.

- Associated Press

by CNB