After a tumultuous year and a half, the General has succeeded in taking his company private.
William Lyon, chairman and chief executive of Newport Beach-based William Lyon Homes Inc., on Tuesday said that he and two family-controlled trusts completed a buyout of the remaining shares of the homebuilding company they didn’t already own, at $109 apiece.
The offer values William Lyon Homes at about $940 million.
William Lyon Homes will continue as a privately held company, owned by Lyon and the two trusts, the company said.
The General tried unsuccessfully to take the company private last year, offering $82 a share. That bid ultimately was scrapped.
He made a second attempt in March. Lyon, who then owned about 75% of the company, initially offered $93 a share for the company. He later upped it to $100 and then to $109.
William Lyon Homes is calling it a done deal. It’s unclear whether a hedge fund that had contested the privatization bid will contest the privatization in court.
British hedge fund Polygon Global Opportunities Master Fund had been bidding up the shares beyond the $109 price, even after the New York Stock Exchange halted trading of the stock in June. Shares were trading at around $150 on the over-the-counter market earlier this week.
Polygon has said in prior filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it had bought enough shares of the company to thwart Lyon from finishing his buyback bid.
