Altus Group, Maker Of Popular CRE Finance Software Argus, Confirms It Is For Sale

The company behind Argus, a near-ubiquitous piece of commercial real estate software, is up for sale. 

Altus Group, which has offices on four continents, confirmed Wednesday that its management had begun a strategic review to maximize stakeholder value, including a potential sale or merger of the company. 

The announcement followed a Reuters report that said the publicly traded Canadian software and data analytics firm was exploring a potential sale after receiving inbound acquisition interest, citing two sources familiar with the matter. The sources said private equity firms that could take Altus Group private were expected to be among the potential buyers. 

Altus Group’s stock jumped more than 9% on the news in trading Tuesday and was up another 5% in early trading Wednesday. 

The firm's announcement described a potential deal as part of a periodic strategic review and stressed that it “may not result in any particular course of action.” Altus Group said it doesn’t intend to comment further on its internal planning except as required by regulatory obligations. 

Altus Group’s flagship valuation, modeling and analysis software is widely used across all corners of the commercial real estate landscape. The software is taught to college students, who use it to compete in intercollegiate business modeling competitions. 

The company is in the process of migrating existing clients and winning new ones to its recently launched Argus Intelligence platform, which management said is giving the firm opportunities to reprice existing contracts and increase margins.

“Recurring revenue growth was fueled by double digit growth in Argus Enterprise, which is now Argus Intelligence. We expect this latest upgrade cycle and new product introductions to drive double digit growth for the next several years,” CEO Jim Hannon said on the firm’s second-quarter earnings call earlier this month.