American Homes to Buy Beazer Rentals

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American Homes 4 Rent on Tuesday announced it will acquire Beazer Pre-Owned Rental Homes Inc. for a little more than $260 million in debt and stock.

The Agoura Hills real estate investment trust issued more than 8 million shares of common stock, worth about $145 million, and paid the balance in mostly debt.

Beazer Rental Homes is a real estate investment trust, which acquired some 1,300 homes in the last two years. Its initial investments came from New York private equity giant KKR & Co. and Atlanta homebuilder Beazer Homes USA Inc., which had a 15 percent stake in the company.

“I am very proud of the efforts of our team, which in just a few years created a company with a high quality portfolio of homes, best-in-class technology and generated industry leading metrics in occupancy, rental growth, renewal rates and portfolio appreciation,” said Chief Executive Officer of Beazer Homes Allan Merril, in a statement.

The acquisition comes less than a month after American Homes announced a partnership with a fund owned by the state of Alaska to buy, renovate and lease homes. The venture could invest as much as $500 million.

American Homes is the second-biggest institutional single-family landlord in the United States, with 25,505 single-family houses in its portfolio as of March 31. The company has yet to turn a profit since going public last year, as it continues to struggle with rising home acquisition costs.