Freddie Mac Lifts Limits on Its Stock : Move Expected to Raise $1 Billion for Ailing S

The board of the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. voted Wednesday to lift ownership restrictions on its preferred stock, a move expected to bring a windfall of more than $1 billion to the savings and loan industry.

The corporation, known as Freddie Mac, is a congressionally created entity that buys home mortgages from savings institutions and other lenders and packages them into securities for resale to investors, thus making more money available for home buyers.

The corporation, known as Freddie Mac, said its board voted to eliminate the restriction on ownership of 15 million shares of participating preferred stock currently held by the nation’s 3,000 savings and loan institutions.

The change will allow the thrifts to sell the non-voting shares for cash beginning Jan. 1, 1989. The stock, which is traded on the New York Stock Exchange, has risen to $100 share from about $45 share six months ago. There are 15 million shares outstanding.

Healthier Segment

Freddie Mac, which had a record profit of $301 million in 1987, provides money for home financing by buying mortgages from thrifts, packaging and reselling them in a huge secondary securities markets to investors.

Analysts estimate that the move would bring a profit of $1 billion to $1.5 billion to savings institutions, which badly need new capital. The industry posted a post-Depression record loss of $7.6 billion last year and lost an additional $3.8 billion in the first three months of this year.

However, much of the preferred stock is owned by the healthier segment of the industry, and Sen. William Proxmire, (D-Wis.), chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, was pushing for a measure that, through a transfer fee on sale of the stock, would have pumped about $375 million of the windfall into the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp., the ailing fund that insures S&L; deposits up to $100,000.