Sun Communities, the Southfield-based REIT best known for its manufactured-housing and RV parks, has been dragged into an unexpected cross-Atlantic legal tangle. A web of contracts, security filings and creditor actions tied to its U.K. holdings overlapped with a high-profile British insolvency, and the complications are now surfacing in recent company filings. The dispute adds a sticky legal layer to a sale Sun signed this spring and is drawing attention from investors and administrators on both sides of the Atlantic.
Crain's lays out the chain
As detailed by Crain's Detroit Business, reporter Kirk Pinho traced how Sun's Park Holidays U.K. portfolio and related legal paperwork brought the Michigan company close to disputes that started with an overseas developer's collapse. Crain's walks through public court records and corporate schedules to show how the U.K. paper trail pulled a U.S. REIT into an unexpectedly complicated closing process.
The sale on paper
Sun disclosed a share-purchase agreement dated May 21, that would sell its Park Holidays U.K. operating portfolio to Panther Bidco Ltd., a buyer backed by Aermont Capital. The purchase agreement, filed with the SEC, lists a base consideration of
