On April 1, 2016, Real Matters Inc., through its US subsidiary Solidifi, completed the acquisition of Linear Title & Closing Limited for up to US$96 million. In connection with this transaction, Real Matters also completed a $100 million private placement of common shares to fund the acquisition, as well as increased its borrowing facilities. This transaction will bring Solidifi’s established real estate technology platform to the $10 billion title and closing market, and also marks Solidifi’s third acquisition since 2013.
With the acquisition of Linear, Solidifi manages a marketplace of more than 100,000 independent, qualified appraisers, abstractors, notaries, attorneys, brokers and real estate professionals that collect and assess key attributes of individual properties.
Solidifi is a leading independent provider of next generation mortgage services and is based in Buffalo, New York.
Linear Title & Closing Limited, based in Rhode Island, is a top-five independent title search and closing provider for refinance, purchase, short sale and REO transactions in all 50 states.
The Real Matters team was led internally by Nick Catros with assistance from George Takach, Pavan Jawanda and Julia Johnson from McCarthy Tétrault LLP.
Linear Title was advised by its in-house counsel, Jessica Kennedy, and by Tom Humphreys and Joseph Anesta at Cameron & Mittleman LLP.
David Coultice (securities), Don Luck (corporate) and Charles Rich (financial services) of Dentons Canada LLP led the team advising Real Matters on its private placement. The Dentons team included Ben Iscoe (corporate), Corey Mackinnon (securities), Kori Williams, Danijel Augustinovic (financial services).
Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP advised the underwriters on the private placement with a team led by Chad Bayne, that included Adam Gutkin, Justin Dharamdial (corporate/securities) and Dov Begun (tax).