Ares Commercial Real Estate will buy Alliant Capital LLC for about $62.8M in cash and stock, the company announced this morning. Alliant Capital is a Fannie Mae DUS lender,with a $3.9B servicing portfolio and recently approved to also originate FHA and Ginnie Mae loans. It will become a wholly owned,taxable REIT subsidiary of ACRE, according to transaction terms. Why ACRE's excited:
Overnight growth from 25 to 89 mortgage professionals
Turnkey financing for multifamily: Now ACRE can offer long-term agency loans, not just "bridge loans," to owners and operators
Diversity and stability: Alliant's approximately 1,000 loans add steady servicing income and length to ACRE's portfolio
Low competition: the agencies don't let many do their lending in the $390B multifamily market
The company also announced that board member Todd Schuster will join John Bartling as co-CEO of ACRE as of June 1.
