The largest brokerage combination of the year is done. Real REMAX Group Inc. completed its acquisition of RE/MAX Holdings on Aug. 24, and the combined company’s shares opened for regular-way trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker REAX on Tuesday morning, replacing both predecessor stocks.
The deal folds RE/MAX’s franchise network of roughly 145,000 agents in nearly 8,500 offices into The Real Brokerage’s technology-driven, agent-owned platform, creating a company with more than 180,000 agents worldwide β over 100,000 of them in the United States and Canada β across more than 120 countries and territories.
RealtyWire reported last week that the two companies had set Aug. 24 as the closing date after preliminary cash-and-stock election results came in. The closing confirms that timetable.
How Real REMAX Group came together
According to a Form 6-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the transaction was executed in a tightly sequenced set of steps on the afternoon of Aug. 24. Real’s outstanding common shares were consolidated on a 10-for-1 basis at 4:01 p.m. Eastern time. The final step of the Canadian plan of arrangement was completed at 4:21 p.m., the first merger involving RE/MAX became effective at 4:25 p.m., and the second merger closed at 4:30 p.m.
Real’s shares, which had traded as REAX on the Nasdaq Global Select Market, and RE/MAX Holdings’ Class A stock, which traded as RMAX on the New York Stock Exchange, were both suspended from trading at the close of business that day. Real REMAX Group stock carries a new CUSIP but continues Real’s trading history under the same REAX symbol.
The cash portion of the deal was oversubscribed. Holders of about 18.5 million RE/MAX Class A shares elected cash, holders of about 11.7 million shares elected stock, and holders of roughly 3.7 million shares made no election and were treated as stock electors. After proration, cash-electing shares received approximately $4.33 in cash plus about 0.3535 shares of the new company; stock-electing shares received 0.5150 shares each.
In total, roughly 14.5 million Real REMAX Group shares went to former RE/MAX holders and about 22.1 million to former Real shareholders. Aggregate cash consideration paid to RE/MAX stockholders was approximately $80 million.
A $550 million loan behind the deal
The filing also disclosed the debt package supporting the transaction, a detail not previously spelled out. On the closing date, Real REMAX Group entered a credit agreement with Morgan Stanley Senior Funding as administrative agent, providing a $550 million term loan maturing in August 2031 and a $40 million revolving facility.
Proceeds funded part of the merger consideration, repaid RE/MAX’s existing credit agreement in full, covered transaction fees and added working capital. Term loans carry interest at Term SOFR β subject to a 3% floor β plus a 5.50% margin, and the borrower must hold its first-lien net leverage ratio at or below 4.50 to 1.00 beginning with the quarter ending Dec. 31, 2026, stepping down to 3.00 to 1.00 over time.
Leadership and brands
Tamir Poleg, Real’s co-founder, is chairman and chief executive of Real REMAX Group. “Bringing together Real’s technology and operating model with REMAX’s global reach and franchise model is a transformational moment for the industry,” Poleg said in the closing announcement, adding that the companies are “creating a more innovative, more productive and more connected real estate ecosystem.”
Ravi Jani continues as chief financial officer and Pritesh Damani as chief technology officer. Jenna Rozenblat, previously Real’s chief operating officer, becomes president. Alexandra Lumpkin is chief legal officer, Amy Somerville is chief operating officer, Abigail Lee is chief marketing officer, and Leah Jenkins β previously RE/MAX’s chief accounting officer β holds that role at the combined company.
When the deal was announced in April, the companies valued RE/MAX at $880 million in enterprise value, or about seven times 2025 EBITDA, and said the combined business would have had roughly $2.3 billion in pro forma 2025 revenue and $157 million in adjusted EBITDA before synergies. They targeted $30 million in annual run-rate cost savings, with most of it realized during 2027. The companies have said RE/MAX and Motto Mortgage will keep operating under their existing brands alongside Real’s.
What it means
Verified: the transaction has closed, the financing is in place, and one Nasdaq-listed company now sits atop both a franchise network and a cloud-based brokerage. Those are facts on the record in the SEC filings.
The rest is not yet settled. RE/MAX came into the deal under pressure β the franchisor reported a $4.3 million second-quarter loss with U.S. agent count down 5% year over year, even as agents outside the U.S. and Canada grew. Real’s growth has run the other way. RealtyWire analysis: the combined agent number is a sum of two very different businesses, and whether it holds depends on how franchisees respond to being owned by a company whose core model competes with the franchise model for the same recruits.
What to watch: the first quarterly report from Real REMAX Group, which will show combined agent counts and revenue on one set of books; progress against the $30 million synergy target; and whether U.S. RE/MAX agent attrition slows now that the deal is past the shareholder vote and closed.
