The large American mobile home park operator Hometown America is believed to be surveying WA’s National Lifestyle Villages with the idea it will buy out Blackstone, the US private equity giant that owns the cash flow rights to NLV’s nine communities.

The founder of NLV, John Wood, has divested most of the land component of the business to Navis Capital, a private equity group out of Malaysia, followed by the income rights to Blackstone which paid $150M in November 2014. These deals were done to retire debt and fund growth. Blackstone is rumoured to be asking $215M for the income streams which are generating it a 10% return.

While not well known in the East, NLV is a household brand in WA. Wood also pioneered sustainable planning and building practices 10 years ago that still have not been matched.

Hometown America is a privately owned mobile parks operator with 49 big sites. With over 20 million Americans living in mobile homes and 15% sector growth, the US competition is significant while here the sector is in its infancy.

Discussion is that they will join up with our Gateway Lifestyle Communities on an NLV deal.