Springleaf CEO’s holdings surge to $151M on OneMain deal

Stock granted to Springleaf Holdings Inc. CEO Jay N. Levine in 2013 soared Tuesday after the company said it would buy subprime lender OneMain Financial from Citigroup Inc. for $4.25 billion.

Indiana-based Springleaf awarded Levine 4.9 million restricted stock units valued at $78.3 million in September 2013, according to an April 2014 regulatory filing. The grant, excluding 1.9 million units he sold for $30.1 million in October 2013 after the firm’s initial public offering, is now worth $151 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Springleaf shares jumped 32 percent, the most since its IPO, to close at $50.23 Tuesday after the company agreed to buy OneMain from New York-based Citigroup.

The Evansville-based company said it plans to complete the purchase in the third quarter and expects the deal to boost 2015 net income, excluding one-time charges tied to the deal, according to a statement.

Robert Rendine and Paul Scarpetta, spokesmen for Springleaf at Sard Verbinnen & Co., declined to comment on the stock award.

If he hadn’t sold the 1.9 million shares, the award would be worth about $246 million, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Springleaf and OneMain are two of the biggest U.S. providers of installment loans, a type of high-interest credit paid back in chunks over time. OneMain, of Baltimore, has more than 1,100 branches, while Springleaf has close to 830, according to their websites.

Springleaf will consolidate approximately 200 branches beginning in the middle of next year. The combined company is expected to have 1,967 branches across 43 states. The Springleaf brand will begin to be phased out in 2016 and use the name OneMain.

Once the transaction is complete, the combined company will be run from Springleaf's executive office in Connecticut. It will maintain a significant presence in Evansville and Baltimore and run key operations out of Wilmington, Delaware; Chicago; London, Kentucky; Mendota Heights, Minnesota; Tempe, Arizona; Fort Mill, South Carolina; and Irving and Fort Worth, Texas.

Springleaf officials said they were uncertain how much the deal would affect employment in Indiana. The company owns six buildings in the city. As of Dec. 31, it had 1,155 Evansville employees, up about 150 from the previous year.