Fortress to acquire Colony American Finance

Senior management team will remain with the lender and retain their current titles

Fortress to acquire Colony American Finance
Fortress Investment Group will acquire specialty lender Colony American Finance (CAF) in a deal that will see the latter rebrand to “CoreVest.”

The transaction pushed through as certain funds (Fortress Funds) managed by the investment group “purchased the equity and substantially all of the assets of CAF,” according to a statement by the lender. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.


“The Fortress Funds will be joined by the current senior management team of CAF in launching CoreVest. The senior management team will remain with the company and retain their current titles,” said Christopher Hoeffel, chief financial officer of CoreVest.

The lender’s chief operating officer, Ryan McBride, said opportunity for growth is “especially strong” because of the demographic “tailwinds” for U.S. housing. “This transaction will enable us to provide scalable debt capital and innovative financing products to our investor clients.” Since its founding in 2014, CAF has financed over 20,000 properties and closed over $2.8bn in loans.

Fortress itself is up for acquisition by Japanese tech giant Softbank, after the former’s shareholders voted last week in favor of the merger. Under the agreement, Softbank will acquire Fortress for about $3.3 billion, and the investment group will operate independently.

The transaction remains subject to certain regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions, but it is expected to close in the second half of 2017.


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