Will Cendant Ever Trade?(Cendant Mortgage Corp.)

Ten months ago Cend-ant Mortgage Corp., the nation's 10th largest residential servicer, was put on the auction block by its parent - and so far a deal has yet to be consummated.

In late August, Countrywide Financial Corp., Calabasas, Calif., took a pass on the New Jersey-based Cendant and its $144 billion portfolio, marking the second time in a year that CFC looked and said no thanks.

As one investment banker put it: "I knew it wasn't going to happen. Countrywide rarely pays up for anything."

In this case the "pay up" for Cendant Mortgage would have been in the range of $750 million to $1 billion or so, Cendant, the parent company, said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Is Cendant worth that much money? The lender/servicer's parent believes so or it wouldn't have said as much in the SEC filing.

But with mortgage production expected to wane the next year, its production business might carry a very low premium. It's $144 billion servicing portfolio is probably worth at least $1 billion, according to some servicing advisors, but then you have to factor in how much debt CMC carries on its books.

At press time, servicing brokers and advisors could offer no news about CMC and its future. And CMC and its parent - as has always been the case - wasn't talking much either. One New York-based banker quipped: "After the servicing, what else is there to sell?"