In the autumn of 2019, Orix USA, the American subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate, struck a deal to buy Hunt Real Estate Capital. The idea was to combine it w/ Orix’s existing brands, Lancaster Pollard & RED Capital, to create a CRE triple-threat (Fannie, Freddie, HUD) superlender. Hunt REC’s president Jim Flynn was tapped to oversee the new joint, and other key execs (Greg Calvert, Tyler Griffin) made the move as well. A few months after closing, the combined entity was rebranded Lument. “As Lument, we can draw on the strength of our combined platforms and the depth of Orix’s balance sheet to make that personal service more powerful than ever,” Orix boss Terry Suzuki said at the time.

Those hopeful pronouncements didn’t quite come to pass. Last year, Lument came 10th on CMA’s structured CMBS agency lending ranking, 14th on Recursion’s ranking of all Fannie multi lenders, and fourth on HUD’s multifamily list. Nothing to sneeze at, but hardly Dream Team stats. There’s also been grumbling among its originators that the parent co. wasn’t willing to flex the b/s as promised. One CRE capital-markets exec described a $50M threshold, above which originators would have to get the mothership’s blessing to quote a b/s loan. All this led dealmakers to pine for the old days, when the Hunt family out of El Paso ran the place w/ a certain swashbuckling brio.

And so when Orix tapped BofA late last year to find a buyer for Lument, Hunt OGs hoped it would be a homecoming. They may get one: A deal w/ Hunt Cos., led by CEO Chris Hunt, is said to be coming together, per sources. A Lument rep declined comment, citing company policy on market rumors or potential transactions. Top Lument brass were informed in recent days that a change was afoot. It’s unclear to us where the final price lands. When BofA kicked off its process, bids were expected in the $1B+ range, reflecting Lument’s nearly $57B loan-servicing portfolio (that sweet, sweet ARR) and its large footprint, w/ 30+ offices across the country.

Founded in the late 1920s by fmr. coal dealer M.L. Hunt, Hunt Cos. today has a wide array of interests including military housing (massive DoD partner, 60K homes), BTR, asset management and development. It got into multifamily lending in ‘13 w/ the acquisition of Centerline Capital. Bringing Lument back into the fold would be part of a recent trend in which real estate dynasties are showing a renewed appetite for the agency-lending game – think of the Morgan family’s vehicle, Springmont Capital, teaming up w/ Bayview to snap up BWE this summer. The past 2Y have also been defined by license musical chairs: Fifth Third acquired the Mechanics/HomeStreet Fannie license for $130M; Benefit Street Partners paid $425M for triple-threat NewPoint; and Zions Bancorp. bought Fannie + Freddie licenses from Basis Investment Group. Fannie, for its part,looked to wet its beak.