Dubai's Emaar buys John Laing Homes for 1.05 bln dollar

NEW YORK, June 2 (Reuters) Emaar Properties, the United Arab Emirates' largest listed company, said it bought John Laing Homes, the second-largest privately held U.S.

homebuilder, for 1.05 billion dollar cash.

Emaar said the purchase creates one of the world's leading real estate developers in residential homebuilding.

Emaar Chairman Mohamed Ali Alabbar said in a statement John Laing gives his company an ''important gateway'' into the U.S.

real estate market. It also helps fulfill Emaar's strategy of expanding globally beyond Dubai, he said yesterday.

The transaction comes amid signs that a recent slowing in what had been a five-year U.S. housing market boom might last at least another year, before a pickup in the rate of increase in housing prices, economists say.

Emaar said John Laing had 1.6 billion dollar of revenue and 2,891 residential closings last year, concentrated in California and Colorado.

The firm will remain based in Newport Beach, California, under the management of Larry Webb, its chief executive, and operate as an Emaar unit.

Both companies' boards of directors unanimously approved the transaction, which closed yesterday, they said.

Emaar said it has real estate operations in more than one dozen markets worldwide. It said it is building the Burj Dubai, which upon completion in 2008 is slated to be the world's tallest building.

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