Acquisition · Financial services (mortgage lending)
Tile maker Danto takes control of California mortgage lender SRE for about $14 million
- Buyer
- Danto Holdings (via Danto Investment Management) (Osaka)
- Target
- SRE Mortgage Alliance, California
- Value
- About ¥1.5B (about $14M) in new shares for 50%
- Status
- Agreed July 13, 2020; expected to close July 17, 2020.
- Date
- 2020-07-13
Danto Holdings, a Japanese building-tile maker, agreed to buy new shares in SRE Mortgage Alliance for about ¥1.5 billion, taking a 50% stake and control. SRE, founded in 1994, holds approvals from US government-backed housing finance agencies and licenses for both mortgages and real estate.
Why it matters
A small manufacturer used a US deal to change its business: with its tile business weak, Danto is building property and finance as new sources of profit.
About SRE
SRE Mortgage Alliance is based in El Segundo, California, and was led by chairman and chief executive Kazuyuki Nagashima. Before the deal, SRE Technologies owned 77.25%. It lost about ¥466 million in 2017 and ¥281 million in 2018, then made an operating profit of about ¥79 million on sales of about ¥1.14 billion in 2019.
How Danto did it
Danto's US subsidiary, Danto Investment Management, at the same El Segundo address, took 14 million new shares for $14 million. Danto traces its roots to a tile maker founded on Awaji Island in 1885, which it calls Japan's oldest. Its property arm had started in earnest two years earlier.
Sources
Kakehashi M&A News home
