Ever since it sold off most of its industrial properties in 2018, FRP Holdings Inc. has been patiently looking at opportunities to redeploy its capital in new projects.
The Jacksonville-based commercial real estate developer announced a deal Oct. 21 that not only adds to its property portfolio but also adds additional management expertise.
FRP announced a $33.5 million deal to acquire the business operations and development pipeline of Fort Lauderdale-based Altman Logistics Properties LLC.
The deal includes interests in six industrial properties under development in Florida and New Jersey with about 1.3 million square feet of space, plus an undeveloped parcel of land in Broward County.
FRP also said Altman’s management team will join the company, led by President Mark Levy, who becomes FRP’s chief investment officer.
“This transaction broadens our exposure to high-quality industrial assets in key markets as well as deepening the bench of our team,” FRP Chief Executive John Baker III said in a conference call with investors.
“We will be able to execute our stated goal of doubling our NOI (net operating income), as well as growing FRP’s sum of the parts valuation to over $1 billion,” he said.
FRP is a company spun out of Jacksonville-based construction materials company Florida Rock Industries Inc., which was founded by Baker’s grandfather nearly a century ago.
Florida Rock created a separate publicly traded company in 1986 called Florida Rock & Tank Lines, consisting of the real estate business and a trucking company that transported fuel.
The trucking and real estate businesses were split up in 2015 into separate public companies, with the transportation company called Patriot Transportation Holding Inc. and the real estate company becoming FRP.
Florida Rock was acquired by Vulcan Materials Co. in 2007 and Patriot was bought by United Petroleum Transports Inc. in 2023.
FRP remains as an independent company. Since selling off its portfolio of industrial buildings seven years ago, the company’s most prominent development projects have been multifamily properties in the Washington, D.C., market, including two apartment communities near the Washington Nationals’ baseball park.
The company also owns properties that are leased for mining construction materials, a legacy of its beginnings with Florida Rock, and a smaller portfolio of industrial buildings, including joint venture projects.
Two of the joint venture projects under development in Lakeland and Davie were in partnership with Altman, and FRP is acquiring the remaining ownership interest.
FRP reported leasing revenue of $14.3 million in the first six months of this year, mostly from multifamily buildings, and $6.8 million in mining royalty payments.
Net income was $2.3 million.
Baker, who succeeded his father John Baker II as CEO in May 2024, said in a March 2025 conference call that the company was looking to deploy $71 million in equity capital investments this year to grow the company.
During the October conference call, Baker said FRP also wanted to expand its management team, a process that might have taken several years without the Altman deal.
“We have acquired wholesale a talented team that we know and trust with a proven track record, deep contacts and expertise in markets well outside our current reach,” he said.
“Now we have the team that can deliver it (the company’s growth plans) and then some,” he said.
After withdrawing previous attempts at an initial public offering in 2021 and 2024, The Fortegra Group Inc. was talking to investment bankers about another try as recently as June 2025.
However, Tiptree Inc., majority owner of the Jacksonville-based specialty insurance company, was also talking to potential buyers and the company agreed in September to a $1.65 billion buyout offer from DB Insurance Co. Ltd., according to a proxy statement filed by Tiptree.
Tiptree acquired Fortegra for $214 million in 2014 and its investment in Fortegra is publicly traded Tiptree’s largest holding, so the deal requires approval from its shareholders at a special meeting.
The date of the meeting has not been set. The companies hope to complete the deal in mid-2026.
Fortegra was publicly traded before the acquisition by Tiptree. The company’s attempts to go public in both 2021 and 2024 were withdrawn because of “limited institutional investor demand at or near the expected valuation range,” Tiptree said in the proxy filed Oct. 17.
“Following the withdrawal of the IPO (in 2024), Tiptree received several inquiries from third parties interested in exploring an investment in or acquisition of Fortegra,” it said.
After the first IPO attempt was withdrawn in 2021, investment firm Warburg Pincus LLC acquired a 24% stake in Fortegra for $200 million, which gave Warburg Pincus the right to participate in talks about another IPO or a sale.
Before agreeing to the deal with South Korea-based DB Insurance, Tiptree, Warburg and Fortegra and its investment advisers contacted 17 parties about a potential deal, received four unsolicited inquiries and eventually received two preliminary bids, the proxy said.
Besides talks about a potential sale or an IPO, the parties also had discussions about a merger with a special purpose acquisition company, a company with no operating businesses that is formed to seek a merger with an existing operating company. That’s another way to go public without a stock sale.
DB Insurance entered the picture in September 2024, a year before reaching agreement.
Officials of Fortegra and DB Insurance met for an “introductory meeting as part of Purchaser’s planned visit to the United States to meet with a number of U.S. insurance industry participants and investment banks,” the proxy said.
Talks continued with DB Insurance and other parties throughout the next year before the agreement was signed.
Fortegra grew substantially under Tiptree’s ownership. It reported revenue of $328 million in 2015, the first year after the acquisition, to a projected $2.2 billion this year, according to the proxy.
The company projects revenue to grow to $3.3 billion by 2029, according to the proxy.
DB Insurance has not announced any specific plans for operations of Fortegra, but Fortegra CEO Rick Kahlbaugh said in a note to employees that the company will operate independently as part of DB’s specialty insurance business.
DB Insurance has said it was interested in Fortegra to expand its business in the U.S. and also Europe, where Fortegra established a subsidiary in 2018.
DB reported 2024 revenue of 17.2 trillion South Korean wan, equivalent to $12.3 billion in U.S. dollars, according to financial analysis firm Morningstar.
The company’s stock is traded on the Korea Stock Exchange.
With Fidelity National Information Services Inc. preparing to report third-quarter earnings next week, two analysts weighed in with different expectations for the Jacksonville-based financial technology company.
KeyBanc Capital Markets analyst Andrew Schmidt rated FIS at “sector weight” while Wells Fargo’s Jason Kupferberg rated the stock at “overweight.”
FIS’ stock was down 16% this year through Oct. 24, as it works to regain confidence with investors after several years of disappointing results.
“FIS is in the process of proving consistency, particularly in the Banking segment,” Schmidt said in his Oct. 21 report.
Providing technology for banks is the company’s largest business segment.
“It is progressing through the improvement cycle, which takes time given the length of various stages (e.g., product velocity; distribution/sales cycles; implementation). FY26 is a focal point for stability / improvement in this regard,” Schmidt said.
“It is a peculiar setup in terms of expectations; the stock has sold off significantly, but expectations for 3Q performance and acceleration into 4Q seem already heightened,” he said.
Kupferberg does have better expectations for the Nov. 5 earnings report.
“Our Overweight rating is based on our expectation that 3Q is tracking ahead of estimates and implied 4Q acceleration is achievable based on easier year-over-year comps,” Kupferberg said in his Oct. 21 report.
“FIS has a resilient business model with high recurring revenues, and could also benefit from a pickup in bank M&A,” he said.
Kupferberg began coverage of 20 financial technology stocks and rates 12 of them at overweight, but he didn’t include FIS in his top “Fab 5 of FinTech” picks.
He sees the sector in a Dickensian best of times, worst of times scenario.
“On the one hand, these companies generally enjoy scale, well-managed balance sheets, and solid profitability/free cash flow generation, though revenue growth profiles vary considerably,” he said.
“On the other hand, concerns abound regarding market share, competition, and in some cases even disruption (from crypto, AI, etc). As a result, valuation multiples for many stocks have significantly dropped.”
Kupferberg downplayed the impact of cryptocurrencies on the fintech sector, particularly on credit card giants Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc.
“While crypto/stablecoins is a relevant topic, in our view, the debate regarding crypto/stablecoins as a potential disruptive risk to V/MA is getting excessive airtime,” he said.
“There is a big difference between competition and disruption, and we see very limited demand for crypto/stablecoin to be used at the traditional point-of-sale, due to a weak consumer value proposition, especially in geographies with a well-developed electronic payments system.”