The Trump administration is preparing to sell stock in mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in an offering it believes could raise around $30 billion and kick off later this year, according to people familiar with the matter.

Fannie Mae rose 15% and Freddie Mac rose 13%. Shares have jumped over 40% as of Aug 12.

The plans being discussed by some administration officials could value the companies at roughly $500 billion or more combined and involve selling between 5% and 15% of their stock, some of the people said. Still up for debate is whether the mortgage giants would IPO as one company or two separate entities. 

Fannie and Freddie, which bundle and sell mortgages, have been under government control since the 2008 financial crisis and rely on a government-backed guarantee to protect investors from losses. 

It is unclear whether Fannie and Freddie will remain under government conservatorship. Bill Pulte, head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, has in the past suggested the firms could remain under conservatorship while conducting a share offering, without clarifying how it would work.

The CEOs of six large banks—Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Bank of America—traveled to D.C. in recent weeks to meet with President Trump to discuss potential plans for Fannie and Freddie.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and FHFA’s Pulte were also present at several of the meetings, people familiar with the matter said. 

Trump allies began laying the groundwork to pursue public offerings for Fannie and Freddie months before he was re-elected, The Wall Street Journal reported last year. 

Proponents have long said that such a transaction—which at the values being discussed would rank among the largest stock offerings in history—could reduce the country’s deficit and return money to taxpayers. 

There is no guarantee a deal will come together. Initial public offerings take time to prepare, and one as complicated as offering shares of Fannie and Freddie is a large undertaking. Some bankers are skeptical whether such a quick timeline is likely. Previous attempts to privatize the firms, including by Trump in his first term, failed to gain traction.

Fannie and Freddie have long benefited from the market expectation that the government would bail them out of any trouble, through a so-called implicit guarantee. Analysts have warned that mortgage rates could rise without that government support. 

President Trump has said he wants the firms to keep the guarantee in the case of a public offering but hasn’t elaborated on how that might work. Any explicit guarantee would likely raise legislative and accounting challenges.

The Treasury Department holds warrants to purchase about 80% of Fannie and Freddie common stock and also holds senior preferred shares. Other investors own junior preferred shares or common stock. The government would be selling stock in the offering.