Walker & Dunlop Acquires Affordable Housing-Focused Alliant Capital For $696M

Walker & Dunlop, Inc. WD has acquired Alliant Capital, Ltd. and its affiliates, Alliant Strategic Investments and ADC Communities, for $696 million.

What Happened: The privately-held Alliant is the nation’s sixth largest syndicator of low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) and has developed more than 100,000 affordable units serving over 400,000 families.

Alliant's $14 billion of affordable assets under management will be added to Walker & Dunlop's $2 billion of assets under management. The transaction terms include $351 million of cash and assumption of Alliant’s securitized debt facility, $100 million of earn-out structured as participating interest in future cash flows over the next four years and $90 million of W&D common stock.

“Alliant will have an immediate impact on Walker & Dunlop's revenues, adjusted EBITDA, and cash flow,” said Willy Walker, chairman and CEO of Walker & Dunlop. “This acquisition dramatically accelerates the achievement of three Drive to '25 goals: revenue growth to $2 billion, assets under management to over $10 billion, and $60 billion of targeted affordable housing lending. To accomplish so much in one acquisition is a true game-changer for W&D.”

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What Else Happened: The Alliant deal is Walker & Dunlop’s third acquisition in three months: it completed its purchase of Zelman & Associates, a housing research and investment banking firm, in July and picked up TapCap, a technology firm that provides real-time and online quotes for commercial real estate debt, in June.

For its second-quarter earnings published on Aug. 5, Walker & Dunlap reported a total transaction volume of $13.5 billion, up 90% from one year earlier, with total revenues of $281.4 million, up 11% from the previous year. The quarter’s net income of $56.1 million and diluted earnings per share of $1.73 were down 10% and 11%, respectively, from the same quarter in 2020.

WD Price Action: The stock is up 3.6% to $105.73 at time of publication.

Photo: Brett VA / Wikimedia Commons.