Axos Bank, the banking subsidiary of Axos Financial, acquired 100% of the membership interests in Verdant Commercial Capital (VCC), an independent equipment leasing company with approximately $1.1 billion of loans and leases on its balance sheet at Aug. 31, 2025, including approximately $750 million of on-balance sheet securitizations and $350 million of loans and leases.
“This acquisition provides us with more scale and enhances our existing equipment leasing business with good risk-adjusted returns,” Greg Garrabrants, president and CEO of Axos Financial, said. “We like Verdant’s specialization in vendor-based equipment leasing and believe we can scale this business profitably. Additionally, we see opportunities to cross-sell commercial deposits and floorplan lending to manufacturers and dealers in several industry verticals such as specialty vehicles, golf, sports and entertainment. After replacing their high-cost funding with our lower-cost deposit funding and growing new originations, we expect the transaction to be accretive to earnings per share by approximately 2% – 3% in fiscal 2026 and 5% – 6% in fiscal 2027.”
Axos will pay a 10% premium on Verdant’s book value at closing. The projected initial purchase price of $43.5 million, including a $4 million premium to book value, will be paid in cash at closing. The seller can earn incremental performance-based cash considerations over a four-year period after close if VCC generates a return on equity (ROE) above 15%. The total earn-out is capped at $50 million.
Axos and the seller signed a member interest purchase agreement on Sept. 19, 2025. Keefe, Bruyette, and Woods, a Stifel company, acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Verdant in the transaction. The company expects to close the transaction on Sept. 30, 2025.
