Springleaf shares soar after winning approval to buy OneMain Financial

Uncle Sam went easy on Wes Edens.

Shares of subprime lender Springleaf Holdings, which is majority owned by Edens’ Fortress Investment Group, surged more than 11 percent Friday after it won regulatory approval to buy Citigroup’s OneMain Financial business under less onerous conditions than investors had feared.

The Justice Department sued Springleaf and simultaneously filed a settlement that calls for the company to sell 127 branches and $600 million in loan receivables to Lendmark Financial Services.

That was far less than the $900 million in assets that analysts had expected, Henry Coffey, of Stern Agee & Leach, told The Post.

“The deal was going to get done; we always knew the deal was going to get done,” he said.

Shares of Springleaf, which is one of the biggest lenders to people who have less-than-stellar credit, rose 11.4 percent, to close at $49.23.