Shares of American Homes fell Thursday after the single-family home landlord priced its public offering announced the day before. The Agoura Hills real estate investment trust said it expects of proceeds of about $230 million before underwriting discounts, commissions and expenses for the 13-million-share offering. That would amount to a per-share price of $17.65, a discount of nearly 2 percent from the closing price on Wednesday. The pricing pushed the New York Stock Exchange issue down 34 cents, or nearly 2 percent, to close on Thursday at the offering price of $17.65. American Homes also plans to grant the underwriter an option to purchase up to an additional 1.95 million shares. Concurrently, the daughter of Chairman B. Wayne Hughes will purchase $50 million of the shares in a private placement at the public offering price, bringing total proceeds up to about $280 million. American Homes intends to use the proceeds to repay debt and to acquire single-family properties and for general corporate purposes. Morgan Stanley will act as the book-running manager for this offering. The company has grappled with rising acquisition costs, which have hit its bottom line. American Homes has not turned a profit since going public last summer. But it remains aggressive in its expansion, with 27,173 single-family properties in selected submarkets in 22 states in its portfolio, as of June 30.
