Red Bank, NJ, March 1--Hovnanian Enterprises has acquired the assets of Cambridge Homes, a privately held Orlando homebuilder and provider of related financial services, headquartered in Altamonte Springs, Florida, for an undisclosed purchase price.
The acquisition provides Hovnanian with a complementary presence to its Tampa operations in the high growth greater Orlando market, which is the 9th largest housing market in the U.S., based on 2003 new home starts.
In its 2004 fiscal year, Cambridge Homes delivered 599 homes with revenue of $166 million. Cambridge Homes currently has approximately 486 homes in contract backlog, with a sales value of $151 million, and owns or controls approximately 3,600 lots throughout the greater Orlando area. Cambridge Homes is a leading builder in the Central Florida market and was ranked 88th nationally in 2004 by Builder Magazine.
Cambridge Homes designs, markets and sells both single family homes and attached townhomes and focuses on first-time, move up and luxury homebuyers. Cambridge Homes also provides mortgage financing, as well as title and settlement services to its homebuyers.
Hovnanian said it expects the addition of Cambridge Homes will be accretive by approximately $0.05 to earnings per fully diluted share in fiscal 2005, which ends October 31st. Hovnanian will not be booking any goodwill in conjunction with the transaction. Further, after taking into account the effects of the acquisition, the company expects to be within its targeted ratio of 50% net debt to capitalization at fiscal year end.
