Imagine spotting someone that reminds you strongly of your younger self. You would likely be intrigued and want to get to know them better. That, in a corporate sense, is what ORIX Group experienced when it first came across Hilco Global, in which it has recently taken a 71.4% stake that values the US financial firm at just over $1 billion.
The parallels are striking: both companies started in relatively obscure niche markets: leasing for ORIX and distressed assets for Hilco Global; and in secondary cities, Osaka and Chicago. Both expanded aggressively into adjacent fields of business, driven by the profit motive and an entrepreneurial spirit that is rare in the conservative financial sector. Finally, both believe that a strong culture and the highest ethical standards are at the heart of doing business.
No wonder Hidetake Takahashi, President & COO of ORIX stressed these shared traits at an employee town hall in September to mark the completion of the Hilco Global acquisition. Pointing out that Hilco Global operations fit naturally into ORIX’s two main business models of asset management & investment and business solutions, Mr. Takahashi said: “Together we can unlock new opportunities and, more importantly, build a culture of shared purpose.”
As a US-based business, Hilco Global will be integrated into ORIX Corporation USA (OCU), led by its President & CEO Terry Suzuki. OCU focuses on three alternative asset classes: private credit, real estate-related finance and private equity investment. It also pursues a hybrid strategy, deriving growth by using both its own robust balance sheet and capital from third-party investors.
In line with ORIX’s overall shift toward an asset management model, OCU is continuing to grow its assets under management and fee generation businesses. As of June 2025, OCU had $91.3 billion in assets*, which includes $40.5 billion in assets and commitments, in addition to $50.8 billion in servicing and administering assets with approximately 1,300 employees serving more than 250 institutional clients.
A keen sense of value
Hilco Global will fit right in, providing OCU with a fourth leg centered around advisory services. The company emerged out of founding chairman & CEO Jeffrey Hecktman’s experience in the mid-1980s, when he was forced to restructure his family’s industrial distribution company after it ran into trouble.
Having realized that he had a talent for valuing the assets of distressed companies and then either investing in them to turn them around, or breaking them up and selling off the parts, he founded Hilco Global, with the name derived from Hecktman Investments Limited Co.
Initially, Hilco Global focused on industrial firms but over time it developed an expertise in retail and, more importantly, it learned that its ability to value assets was superior to that of the accounting firms commonly used by banks taking possession of distressed corporations. That led Mr. Hecktman to work directly with lenders just as the asset-based loan market took flight in the 1990s and culminated in Hilco Global starting its own lending operation, supplying mezzanine debt or what he likes to call ‘dequity’, making returns of 20-30%.
A good example of Hilco Global in action is its 2012 acquisition of Bethlehem Steel’s abandoned 3,400-acre steel mill along Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay. After buying it out of bankruptcy, with a partner, Hilco Global’ s real estate redevelopment team recycled and sold off all the machinery and steel making equipment and fully remediated the industrial site for redevelopment into a tri-model distribution hub. Today, the massive, redeveloped property is the largest multi-model facility of its kind in North America called Tradepoint Atlantic which houses millions of square feet of warehouses for companies such as FedEx, Amazon, Home Depot and more. By 2020, Hilco Global’s original $72m investment helped generate profits of $350mand turn in a record year amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Today, Hilco Global offers a suite of financing, monetization, valuation and advisory solutions, based on the expertise of more than 810 employees, a decades-long track record of profitability and an unrivalled database of asset values it has valued ‘to the penny’ over almost 40 years. In 2024, it generated net income of more than $50m from sales and net assets that were each over $300m.
Capitalizing on a common culture
While Hilco Global expands OCU’s offering, the new parent will be able to accelerate Hilco Global growth. “The fundamental reason this partnership makes sense is that while Hilco Global understands asset values and has the ability to originate investments and loan opportunities, it has historically been capital constrained and ORIX brings capital and the ability to access additional capital through third-party investment,” says Jeff Abrams, Group Head of Private Credit & Real Estate at OCU.
With that extra capital, Hilco Global will be able to originate loans and investments more quickly than it could on its own and potentially expand internationally as well, turning itself into the “asset-rich merchant bank” its founder is determined to build. Meanwhile, ORIX believes there are treasures still to be leveraged from Hilco Global’s know-how and intellectual assets that can be devised into investment strategies around intellectual property, brands, equipment finance and more.
Above all, though, it is the common culture of the two companies that will drive their future success. Like ORIX, Hilco Global focuses largely on mid-market companies, has a “principal investment DNA”, as Mr. Abrams puts it, and a similarly conservative approach to risk, deploying capital “always within the assets” – meaning the investment is covered and the downside risk mitigated.
“Working hard while having fun; making money but also giving back to the community. This is what drives the teams at both firms,” concludes Mr. Hecktman, and makes Hilco Global and ORIX such a powerful combination, where “one plus one equals ten”.
Doing the deal: a year of hard work and a handshake
Proudly private but always hungry for more capital to fuel its growth, Hilco Global attracted several investment partners over the years as the company’s rapid growth continued to require additional capital. In 2006, Hilco Global sold a third of its shares to Goldman Sachs and Cerberus Capital before buying the equity back in 2011. In 2019, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) took a 26.7% stake in Hilco Global, but following the pandemic, the pension and insurance company, altered their mix of investment asset classes which facilitated another buy-back which was executed as part of the OCU transaction in 2025.
The situation with CDPQ prompted Hilco Global to look for a more strategic, long-term investor and the group’s financial advisors at JP Morgan quickly assembled a book of 40-50 interested financial institutions. Among some of the world’s biggest PE firms, Mr. Hecktman was intrigued by one name on the list: ORIX. His advisors, however, told him not to “fall in love” with any one firm and to follow a disciplined sale process. After one year of due diligence, a lot of hard work on both sides and multiple meetings that concluded with a handshake between the top executives, ORIX clinched the deal. “I fell in love with ORIX,” Mr. Hecktman admits.
* As of June 30, 2025. Includes $50.8 billion in servicing and administering assets, in addition to $40.5 billion in funded assets and unfunded commitments across proprietary capital, third party capital and strategic partners investing in ORIX USA’s private credit, real estate and private equity businesses. Unfunded commitments are based on a contractual commitment or an expected commitment for an established program based on ORIX USA Group’s understanding.
