Acquisition · Homebuilding (build-to-rent)
Sumitomo Forestry's Gehan buys 80% of Florida build-to-rent firm Southern Impression
- Buyer
- Sumitomo Forestry (via Gehan Homes) (Tokyo)
- Target
- Southern Impression Homes (80%), Jacksonville, Florida
- Value
- About ¥11.2B (about $85M) for 80%
- Status
- Completed around the end of 2022.
- Date
- 2022-12-27
Sumitomo Forestry's Texas homebuilder Gehan Homes bought 80% of SI Holdco, the parent of Southern Impression Homes, which develops and builds single-family homes for rent in Florida and Georgia. The price was about ¥11.2 billion, reported as about $85 million. The purchase included its property management, construction and title companies.
Why it matters
It was Sumitomo Forestry's entry into Florida and into build-to-rent homes, a fast-growing part of the US housing market.
About Southern Impression
Southern Impression Homes is based in Jacksonville and works mainly in Jacksonville, Ocala and Fort Myers. It buys land, builds single-family homes, sells them to investors and manages them as rentals. In 2021 it had sales of about $121 million and pre-tax profit of about $26 million, sold 472 homes and 709 lots, and managed 1,659 rental homes.
The structure
The sellers were the company's president, Chris Funk, and its founder. Funk kept 20% through his own holding company. Sumitomo Forestry said Gehan would also start building and selling its own homes in Florida, as part of a goal of supplying 23,000 homes a year in the US.
Sources
Kakehashi M&A News home
