Dominion News Releases

July 6, 2001

Saxon Announces Sale from Dominion and Raises $277 Million in Private Placement

• Dominion Completes Divestiture of Former Mortgage Lending Subsidiary;
• Virginia Based Friedman Billings Ramsey Leads Transaction

GLEN ALLEN, Va. – Saxon Capital, Inc., a residential mortgage company and its operating subsidiaries, today becomes independent with the announcement of their divestiture from Dominion. The divestiture of Saxon was accomplished through a private placement of approximately $277 million in capital for Saxon Capital Acquisition Corp., which was formed to acquire Saxon Capital, Inc. The June 29th transaction, which settles today, provides Saxon with more than $100 million in working capital. Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co., Inc., acted as advisor and was the sole placement agent for the transaction.

The transaction is part of Dominion’s ongoing divestiture of its financial services businesses. The sale was required to complete Dominion’s merger with Consolidated Natural Gas Company, which closed in January last year.

“Saxon has been a profitable and value-adding member of the Dominion Capital group of financial services companies,” said Thos. E. Capps, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Dominion. “We wish our colleagues there the very best. They are a talented, hard-driven group of professionals, and we’re pleased to be transferring ownership of the business to a group that includes this excellent management team.”

This transaction accomplishes Saxon’s primary goal of maintaining a disciplined credit and servicing culture and building upon a very solid and broad capital base. Saxon will continue to provide its full line of services to its customers throughout the United States.

“The mortgage business is truly a people business, and we are excited to have some of the best and brightest employees in the industry,” said Michael L. Sawyer, chief executive officer of Saxon, “This divestiture will not affect the company, our disciplined credit and servicing culture, our management team or the way we do business. It’s business as usual, with the highest level of integrity and service our customers have come to expect from us. We look forward to being more responsive to our customers’ needs by continuing to embrace new technologies and products going forward.”

Dominion will use proceeds from the sale of Saxon Capital to reduce outstanding debt and will retain about $300 million in mortgage assets related to prior loan securitizations, which Saxon will continue to manage. Dominion has also acquired an approximately 9 percent position in Saxon Capital Acquisition Corp. through the private placement.

About Saxon Capital, Inc. 
Saxon Capital is a residential mortgage company that originates, purchases, securitizes and services nonconforming mortgage and home equity loans. It was the 14th-largest originator and the 12th-largest servicer of sub-prime and nonconforming mortgage loans in the first quarter of 2001. Saxon Capital, Inc. has three operating subsidiaries: Saxon Mortgage, Inc., America’s MoneyLine Inc., and Meritech Mortgage Services, Inc.

About Dominion 
Dominion (NYSE: D), headquartered in Richmond, Va., is one of the nation's largest producers of energy, with a production capability of 2.7 trillion British Thermal Units of energy per day. The company has a power generation portfolio of more than 21,000 megawatts, which is expected to grow to more than 28,000 megawatts by 2005. Dominion is one of the largest independent oil and natural gas exploration and production companies in North America, with 2.8 trillion cubic feet of equivalent reserves. Dominion also serves about 4 million retail natural gas and electric customers. For more information, see http://www.dom.com/.

About Friedman, Billings, Ramsey
 Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group, Inc. (NYSE: FBR), the parent company of Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co., Inc., is a financial holding company for businesses that provide investment banking, institutional brokerage, specialized asset management, and banking products and services. FBR provides capital and financial expertise throughout a company’s lifecycle and affords investors access to a range of proprietary financial products and services. Headquartered in the Washington metropolitan area, FBR has offices in Arlington and Reston, Va., Bethesda, Md., Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Irvine, Ca., New York City, Portland, Seattle, London, and Vienna. Bank products and services are offered by FBR National Bank & Trust, member FDIC and an Equal Housing Lender. For more information, see http://www.fbr.com/.

Certain information contained herein may constitute “forward-looking statements” pertaining to management projections of future initiatives and results. Readers are cautioned that while management believes its projections to be accurate, actual results and the timing of certain events could differ materially from those projected in or contemplated by the forward-looking statements due to a number of factors, such as changes in overall economic conditions and interest rates, changes in capital market and competitive conditions applicable to our, and changes in the applicable legal and regulatory environment.

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