Luxor Capital Group Sells Over 2.0 Mln Shares of William Lyon Homes (WLH)

Christian Leone‘s Luxor Capital Group has reported selling a total of 2.3 million class A shares of William Lyon Homes (NYSE:WLH), reducing its stake to some 6.29 million shares. In this way, following the decrease, Luxor’s activist position accounts for 23% of the company outstanding Class A common stock. The fund has sold the securities in seven transactions at a price of $27.25 per share, which raise the total proceeds from the deal to $62.68 million.

Last week the company reported that it is conducting a public offering by Luxor Capital Group and its affiliates. Under the terms of the offering, the investor planned to sell 2.0 million shares and 300,000 shares as under-allotment options. All the proceeds from the offering went to Luxor. William Lyon Homes (NYSE:WLH) is a $860 million construction company, that is engaged in design, construction and sale of single family detached and attached homes in California, Nevada and Arizona states.

Also in March, William Lyon Homes (NYSE:WLH) conducted a private offering during which it sold $150 million worth of its 5.75% senior notes due 2019 through its wholly owned subsidiary. The gains from the offering will be used for acquisition of land, which is currently under contract and for general corporate purposes.

Another major shareholder of William Lyon Homes (NYSE:WLH) is John Paulson‘s Paulson & Co, which held 3.32 million shares of the company at the end of last year. Two other investors, Tom Brown of Second Curve Capital and Robert Bishop of Impala Asset Management have been bullish on the company, and during the fourth quarter of 2013, raised their holdings by over 20% each, to 1.28 million and 1.24 million shares respectively.

Christian Leone during the last month have been very active and in several filings, Luxor Capital has reported raising its positions in several companies. One of them is BJ’s Restaurants, Inc. (NASDAQ:BJRI), in which Luxor recently upped its stake to 11.3%, equal to more than 3.2 million shares. Mr. Leone also upped his position in Lamar Advertising Co (NASDAQ:LAMR) to 4.07 million shares, or over 5% of the stock.

Disclosure: none

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