After forcing Hometown to up its bid price from $635 million to $715 million, the Canadian group Brookfield has abandoned its pitch to buy the ASX-listed Gateway.
This leaves Hometown as the only bidder, lodging their bidder’s statement yesterday with Gateway’s board advising shareholders to take no action until it is reviewed.
Hometown originally had caveats all over its bid, giving it every opportunity to look at the Gateway business and numbers without formally committing to buy. With Brookfield out of the way they may revert to this one-sided negotiation.
The Australian arm of the US housing operator Hometown America now has 950 home sites under management after picking up another 578 sites including the 430-site Green Wattle Villages at Burpengary in Queensland – the biggest transaction in the LLC sector yet.
Hometown is also acquiring two communities with a total of 148 sites from Ingenia at Lake Macquarie and Chain Valley Bay.
Hometown America has over 60 communities with more than 24,000 home sites across 10 states of the US.
