The New York Stock Exchange halted trading of William Lyon Homes Inc. on Tuesday, and said it plans to have the stock delisted amid a dearth of shares available to trade.
The exchange told Newport Beach-based William Lyon Homes that the amount of publicly held shares of the company’s common stock wasn’t enough for its auction market trading system.
The move comes with the homebuilder’s shares trading at $147.15. That’s 35% higher than majority owner William Lyon’s $109 a share offer earlier this year to buy all outstanding stock and take the company private.
The company behind the odd trading: British hedge fund Polygon Global Opportunities Master Fund.
Polygon has said in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it has bought enough shares of the company to thwart Lyon from finishing his buyback bid.
Polygon said it paid between $122 and $131.05 for its shares.
Last month, Lyon said he and his family trusts owned more than the 90% of the homebuilder’s shares required to privatize the company.
Lyon said he planned to force a buyout of the remaining shares under what’s known as a short-form merger process, a move that Polygon appears to be contesting.
