Ares Completes Alliant Purchase

Ares Commercial Real Estate Funding has completed its purchase of EF&A Funding LLC, which does business as Alliant Capital LLC, for nearly $61 million. The compensation was split into $52.9 million in cash and $7.4 million of Ares common stock (588,235 shares valued at $12.65 per share).

Alliant will be renamed ACRE Capital LLC. It still is headed by Ed Hurley, whose new title is president of ACRE Capital. The unit has two warehouse lines of credit to fund multifamily loans totaling $180 million. It originates primarily through the Fannie Mae Delegated Underwriting and Servicing program.

It will become a subsidiary of ACRE Capital Holdings LLC, a newly formed taxable real estate trust subsidiary of Ares.

As of mid-July, Ares on its own had $400 million of funding capability available. In June it did a public offering of its common stock, raising $243 million in proceeds.

Ares co-CEO Todd Schuster said the deal strengthens Ares origination platform while adding depth to the company by the addition of Alliant’s management team and servicing business.