Mattamy Homes to buy Monarch Corporation

This story has been updated

In one fell swoop, Mattamy Homes – already Canada’s largest new home builder, though primarily in lowrise homes – has also become a major player in the highrise business.

Mattamy Homes Ltd. has announced that it has entered into an agreement to purchase Monarch Corporation, the Canadian division of U.S. homebuilder Taylor Morrison Home Corp. The net cash purchase price will be determined based on the Dec. 31, 2014 Monarch balance sheet and certain agreed-upon adjustments. The purchase price is currently estimated to be approximately CAD$330 million, net of cash distributed to the vendor prior to close. The deal is expected to formally close in the first quarter of 2015 and is subject to customary closing conditions, including approval by the Canadian Competition Bureau.

“This is an exciting time for Mattamy, as well as Brad Carr, our Canadian president, and me,” says Brian Johnston, chief operating officer of Mattamy Homes. “We both spent our formative years at Monarch and expect the deal to provide valuable synergies to Mattamy. I would highlight that this acquisition, in one stroke, puts us in the highrise business in a significant way. Highrise represents more than 50 per cent of new home sales in the Greater Toronto Area and so is a major positive to this transaction.”

For homebuyers, there's not likely to be any immediate impact of the deal.

"There is no immediate change for Mattamy or Monarch homebuyers as a result of this announcement," says Carey. "For now it’s business as usual. We will have more answers as we carry out the work of evaluating how and to what extent the two organizations will be integrated."

Mattamy Homes is one of the largest privately owned builders in North America and is Canada’s largest new home builder, with operations across Canada and the United States. Mattamy has built more than 70,000 homes in hundreds of communities. In Canada, those communities stretch across the Greater Toronto Area, as well as in Ottawa, Calgary and Edmonton. In the U.S., the company is represented in seven metropolitan areas: Minneapolis-St. Paul, Charlotte, Phoenix, Tucson, Jacksonville, Orlando and Tampa-Sarasota.