Shareholders OK buyout of Austin’s Forestar Group

Texas-based D.R. Horton will acquire 75% of Forestar’s stock.

Shareholders for Austin-based Forestar Group Inc. have voted to approve a $560 million majority acquisition bid from Texas-based homebuilder D.R. Horton Inc., the companies said.

Shareholders representing about 31.9 million shares — or about 76.2 percent of the company’s outstanding shares — voted in favor of the deal, Forestar Group said in a news release.

The companies expect to formally close the deal this week, Forestar Group said in a news release.

The agreement calls for Fort Worth-based D.R. Horton — the nation’s largest homebuilder — to acquire 75 percent of Forestar’s stock at a cash price of $17.75 a share. Forestar Group’s board said in June that it had agreed to the deal, which followed a brief bidding war between D.R. Horton and Connecticut-based Starwood Capital Group.

Forestar Group announced in April that it had agreed to a takeover bid from Starwood, which initially offered $14.25 a share. After the rival bid from D.R. Horton emerged, Starwood twice raised its offer, first to $15.50 a share and then $16 a share.

D.R. Horton initially proposed $16.25 a share, then upped that to its final $17.75 offer, which Forestar Group accepted.

Forestar Group previously said that if the acquisition closes as expected, Forestar will remain a publicly traded company, so it can continue to access capital markets and secure funds for new land deals and other transactions. Forestar also previously said it would continue to run its residential and mixed-use real estate development operations from Austin, and that after the merger it would be led by former D.R. Horton CEO Donald Tomnitz and members of the current Forestar Group management team.

The acquisition will close a final chapter on Temple-Inland Inc., which once was one of Austin’s few Fortune 500 companies. Forestar Group was the largest piece spun off from Temple-In-