Acquisition · Homebuilding
Daiwa House buys 60% of California homebuilder Trumark
- Buyer
- Daiwa House Industry (via Daiwa House USA) (Osaka)
- Target
- Trumark Companies, San Ramon, California
- Value
- Status
- Completed on February 1, 2020 (January 31 Pacific time). The co-founders stayed on as co-owners and co-CEOs.
- Date
- 2020-01-16
Daiwa House's US unit agreed to buy 60% of Trumark Companies from its founders and to put in more money to fund growth. Trumark develops land, builds and sells single-family homes and condominiums, and has developed more than 8,000 lots in California since 1988, selling about 435 homes a year. Neither side disclosed a price; Daiwa's Japanese filing also gives none.
Why it matters
It was Daiwa House's second US homebuilder after Stanley Martin (2017) and its entry into California, where building permits are hard to get. It was an early step in the wave of Japanese homebuilders buying US builders.
About Trumark
Trumark was led by co-founders Gregg Nelson and Michael Maples and had nearly 100 employees, about half in Orange County. It had funded each project with outside investors' money, which Nelson called a tedious process. Daiwa's money let it fund deals itself, and it planned to scout Nevada, Colorado and the Pacific Northwest and to launch two new divisions within 18 months.
Daiwa's goal
Daiwa House's 2019 to 2021 plan aimed for ¥400 billion of overseas sales by 2021, focused on the US, Australia and Southeast Asia. Daiwa had looked at California for years because of its large, fast-growing economy, but found it one of the hardest places to get development permits.
Sources
Kakehashi M&A News home
