Walker & Dunlop Completes Acquisition of Johnson Capital

BETHESDA, Md., Nov. 3, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Walker & Dunlop WD ("the Company") announced today that it successfully completed its previously announced acquisition of Johnson Capital's loan origination and servicing platform. Johnson Capital, formerly one of Walker & Dunlop's largest mortgage banking correspondents, was a leading commercial real estate capital intermediary with direct lender relationships through Freddie Mac, HUD and many life insurance companies.

The combination of Johnson Capital's team of real estate finance professionals and long-standing correspondent relationships will expand Walker & Dunlop's national brokerage footprint in anticipation of the upcoming commercial real estate refinance wave. Guy Johnson, Chairman & CEO of Johnson Capital, brings his many years of commercial real estate experience to Walker & Dunlop in the role of Vice Chairman of the Capital Markets group.

"We are excited to officially bring the Johnson Capital team on board and are confident the integrated team will add significant value to Walker & Dunlop's brokered, agency, and proprietary originations. The addition of these talented originators and their collective experience furthers Walker & Dunlop's strategic goal of expanding our capital markets platform.  The acquisition of Johnson Capital accelerates our progress towards becoming the premier commercial real estate finance company in the United States," commented Howard Smith, Walker & Dunlop's Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer.

Walker & Dunlop does not expect the transaction to have a material impact on its fourth quarter 2014 financial results but expects the transaction to be accretive beginning in 2015. The acquisition was structured as an asset purchase.  Additional details on the transaction will be disclosed on the Company's third quarter earnings call, scheduled for November 6, 2014, 8:30 AM EST.

About Walker & Dunlop

Walker & Dunlop WD, headquartered in Bethesda, MD, is one of the premier commercial real estate finance companies in the nation.  The firm's scaled lending platform provides customers with a comprehensive suite of financing solutions for multifamily and commercial properties located across the United States.  Walker & Dunlop has more than 450 professionals with an unyielding commitment to client satisfaction located in 22 offices nationwide. For more information, please visit www.walkerdunlop.com.

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; 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 ability to integrate Johnson Capital's loan servicing portfolio or loan origination platform into our business successfully; and (6) 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.

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.