Acquisitions · Homebuilding
Daiwa House's Stanley Martin buys United Homes Group for $221 million
- Buyer
- Daiwa House (via Stanley Martin Homes) (Osaka)
- Target
- United Homes Group, Columbia, South Carolina
- Value
- $221M (enterprise value; $1.18 per share)
- Status
- Completed; closing announced May 4, 2026.
- Date
- 2026-02-22
Stanley Martin Homes, the US homebuilding arm of Daiwa House Group, agreed to acquire Nasdaq-listed United Homes Group for $1.18 a share in cash, an enterprise value of about $221 million. United Homes builds entry-level and move-up homes in South Carolina and neighboring states. The deal closed in early May 2026.
Why it matters
The deal pushes Daiwa House deeper into the fast-growing Southeast and came days after Sumitomo Forestry's Tri Pointe purchase, part of a wave of Japanese builders consolidating US homebuilding.
The deal
The merger agreement was signed on February 22, 2026. The $1.18 price was well below the market: law-firm notices and market reports said United Homes stock closed at $2.38 on the last trading day before the announcement, so holders received about half that price. The shares traded lower after the news.
The deal was approved by a special committee and the full board of United Homes, and holders of about 70% of the voting power gave written consent, so no shareholder meeting was needed. Vestra Advisors was the special committee's sole financial adviser. At closing on May 4, each share was converted into the right to receive $1.18 in cash, and United Homes repaid and terminated its main credit facilities. Daiwa House said it took full ownership on May 5, Japan time.
Shareholder-rights law firms announced investigations into whether the price was fair, citing the discount and the agreement's penalty for accepting a competing bid. These were allegations, not findings.
About United Homes
United Homes, formerly Great Southern Homes, went public in March 2023 through a merger with the SPAC DiamondHead Holdings, and its shares fell roughly 80% after the listing. It had been running a review of strategic options, including a sale, before the deal.
It closed 1,192 homes in 2025, down 17%, in Greenville, Spartanburg, Clemson, Columbia and Myrtle Beach in South Carolina and Augusta, Georgia. It posted a 2025 net loss of $16.3 million, compared with a $46.9 million profit in 2024. Fourth-quarter revenue was $123.4 million, and the average price of a production home closed in the quarter was about $329,000. It had $24.4 million in cash at year-end.
Strategy
Daiwa House organizes its US single-family business into three regional platforms: Stanley Martin in the East (acquired 2017), Trumark in the West (2020) and CastleRock in Texas (2021). Daiwa House said the group is expanding by buying businesses and companies region by region. Stanley Martin also bought Windsor Homes to grow in the Carolinas, and in July 2026 completed the purchase of Florida builder Holiday Builders, which closed 1,050 homes in 2025.
Sources
Kakehashi M&A News home
