Walker & Dunlop to Acquire Johnson Capital

BETHESDA, Md., Sept. 29, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Walker & Dunlop, Inc. WD announced today that it has agreed to acquire Johnson Capital's loan origination and servicing platform.  Johnson Capital is a leading national commercial real estate mortgage company that maintains long-standing brokerage relationships with many life insurance companies, banks and CMBS conduits.  In addition, Johnson Capital is an approved HUD MAP lender nationally and Ginnie Mae issuer.  As part of the transaction, approximately $590 million in HUD servicing will be added to Walker & Dunlop's $40 billion servicing portfolio.  Johnson Capital also has sourced billions of dollars of Fannie Mae DUS loans as a correspondent to Walker & Dunlop over the past 20 years, and has originated Freddie Mac multifamily loans. Johnson Capital has originated $1.3 billion in commercial loans on average over the past three years.

"As one of Walker & Dunlop's largest mortgage banking correspondents, we know Johnson Capital extremely well and are thrilled to be adding such an exceptional team of real estate finance professionals to our platform," commented Walker & Dunlop Chairman and CEO Willy Walker. "Johnson Capital has a significant origination presence in the West and Southwest and will grow Walker & Dunlop's brokered originations with life insurance companies, banks and CMBS conduits dramatically. Commercial loan refinancing volumes are projected to grow over 70% between 2014 and 2015 and adding the origination capabilities of Johnson Capital to Walker & Dunlop is both timely and strategic."

Guy Johnson, Founder and CEO of Johnson Capital commented, "We have enjoyed a long and mutually beneficial correspondent relationship with Walker & Dunlop and I am very excited to be part of bringing our two great companies together.  Walker & Dunlop's national brand and extremely strong market position will benefit our people and clients immediately."

"I am excited to welcome the Johnson Capital team to Walker & Dunlop and look forward to working with Guy over the coming years to achieve Walker & Dunlop's mission of being the premier commercial real estate finance company in the United States," concluded Walker.

The terms of the cash and stock transaction were not disclosed.  Completion of the acquisition is subject to certain conditions, consents and approvals, and expected to close on or around November 1, 2014.  Walker & Dunlop expects the transaction to be accretive beginning in 2015. 

About Walker & Dunlop 

Walker & Dunlop WD, headquartered in Bethesda, MD, is a leading provider of commercial real estate financing solutions nationwide. The firm's comprehensive suite of financing solutions allows us to originate loans for our own balance sheet, CMBS conduit, and investment partnerships, or for sale to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, HUD, life insurance companies, banks and other CMBS providers. Walker & Dunlop has more than 400 employees located in 20 offices nationwide. For more information, please visit www.walkerdunlop.com and follow us on Twitter at @Walkerdunlop.

Forward Looking Statements

Some of the statements contained in this press release constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Forward-looking statements relate to expected synergies and other benefits of our acquisition of the loan origination and servicing platform of Johnson Capital; the expected timing of completion of the acquisition and other of our projections, plans and strategies; anticipated events or trends and similar expressions concerning matters that are not historical facts. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the use of forward-looking terminology such as ''may,'' ''will,'' ''should,'' ''expects,'' ''intends,'' ''plans,'' ''anticipates,'' ''believes,'' ''estimates,'' ''predicts,'' or ''potential'' or the negative of these words and phrases or similar words or phrases that are predictions of or indicate future events or trends and that do not relate solely to historical matters. You can also identify forward-looking statements by discussions of strategy, plans or intentions.

The forward-looking statements contained in this press release reflect our current views about future events and are subject to numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and changes in circumstances that may cause actual results to differ significantly from those expressed or contemplated in any forward-looking statement.

While forward-looking statements reflect our good faith projections, assumptions and expectations, they are not guarantees of future results. Furthermore, we disclaim any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement to reflect changes in underlying assumptions or factors, new information, data or methods, future events or other changes, except as required by applicable law. Factors that could cause our results to differ materially include, but are not limited to: (1) general economic conditions and multifamily and commercial real estate market conditions; (2) regulatory and or legislative changes to Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae or HUD, (3)  our ability to retain and attract loan originators and other professionals; (4) changes in federal government fiscal and monetary policies, including any constraints or cuts in federal funds allocated to HUD for multifamily loan originations; (5) the risk that the acquisition is not completed on a timely basis; (6) the ability to integrate Johnson Capital's loan servicing portfolio or loan origination platform into our business successfully; (7) the risk that the economic benefits and other synergies that we anticipate as a result of the acquisition are not fully realized or take longer to realize than expected; and (8) the risk that we and Johnson Capital are unable to obtain required consents and approvals for the acquisition or that such consents and approvals result in the imposition of conditions that could adversely affect our operations.

For a further discussion of these and other factors that could cause future results to differ materially from those expressed or contemplated in any forward-looking statements, see the section entitled ''Risk Factors" in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and in our subsequent SEC filings.  Such filings are available publically on our Investor Relations web page at www.walkerdunlop.com.

SOURCE Walker & Dunlop, Inc.