take over this mongrel

Maybe this will put a cracker up the arse of the share price....

BABCOCK & BROWN Communities, the listed developer and manager of retirement homes and villages, moved into the takeover spotlight late yesterday when 40 million of its units changed hands at 45c.

That is about 6 per cent of the register and was traded at 2c below the closing price through JP Morgan. Lend Lease was fingered as a possible buyer, given its chief executive Greg Clarke has declared his interest in the sector through his initial stab at FKP last week.

JP Morgan is also Lend Lease's adviser in its $1.3 billion bid for FKP, which rejected Clarke's initial overtures - a move that may, in turn, prompt him to look at other opportunities that are available.

BBC is just one of those, given it has been a serial market underperformer. Now valued at just $306 million, the fund is considered a prime candidate to be sold or taken private by its mothership, Babcock & Brown.

That speculation was prompted by the board announcement last week of a strategic review "for … determining options to reduce the gap between the underlying asset values and BBC's current market trading prices".

B&B and ING Investment are the fund's two largest investors - the latter is suspected to be the seller. BBC closed 7c up at 47c.