Realogy filed a lawsuit in the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware against certain affiliates of Madison Dearborn Partners, LLC (“MDP”) and SIRVA Worldwide, Inc. (“SIRVA”), an MDP portfolio company, to enforce SIRVA’s obligations under the previously announced purchase agreement for the sale of Realogy’s Cartus Relocation Services business for $400 million.
Realogy strongly believes that all conditions to closing of the transaction have been and continue to be satisfied, and that MDP and SIRVA have made false claims in an attempt to avoid their obligations under the purchase agreement in light of broad-based economic uncertainties due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.
On April 24, 2020, Realogy delivered notice to SIRVA that it had satisfied all closing conditions to SIRVA’s obligations under the purchase agreement and was committed to closing the transaction on April 29, 2020 after having timely delivered all required financial information over the past two months in compliance with the terms of the purchase agreement. On April 25, 2020, SIRVA notified Realogy that it believed that not all closing conditions have been or will be satisfied by the April 30, 2020 termination date under the purchase agreement by asserting a series of claims Realogy firmly believes to be false.
Realogy strongly disagrees with SIRVA’s position and will pursue all legal remedies to ensure that SIRVA and MDP honor the commitments made under the purchase agreement.
In a statement released by SIRVA, the company said it “strongly disagrees with the allegations in the Realogy complaint and will vigorously defend itself against all allegations made in the complaint and will continue to enforce all of its rights under the purchase agreement, including with respect to Realogy’s breaches of the purchase agreement.”
“Over the last several months, SIRVA has been working diligently to successfully complete the acquisition of Cartus Relocation Services,” their statement continued. “Over the weekend, we provided Realogy with information as to why we believe that certain closing conditions that they are obligated to meet under the purchase agreement have not been and cannot be satisfied. Today we received a complaint filed by Realogy under the purchase agreement. Unfortunately, this complaint addresses none of the issues raised by us. Instead, we believe the complaint constitutes a breach by Realogy of the purchase agreement.”