Pacific Lighting Will Sell Land Units to Lyon : Proceeds Will Be Used to Expand Non-Utility Units

Newport Beach real estate developer William Lyon and a company in which he owns a major interest have agreed to purchase all of Pacific Lighting Corp.’s land development subsidiaries, including the Irvine-based Presley Cos., for $325 million in cash, the companies said Wednesday.

Los Angeles-based Pacific Lighting said the transaction, expected to close in a month, will give it a $12-million profit and end its 18-year involvement in real estate development, which was begun in 1969 as diversification move. The firm’s principal subsidiary is Southern California Gas Co.

Pacific Lighting announced last March that it was putting its four real estate businesses up for sale, saying that although the group was successful--earning $24 million in 1986--it was undervalued by Wall Street. Lyon was among seven bidders for the firms, Pacific Lighting said.

“We have felt for some time we don’t realize full value for our successful real estate operations in the price of our stock,” said Pacific Lighting Executive Vice President Willis B. Wood. The utility said it will use proceeds from the sale to expand its gas and oil exploration activities and its retailing business, which it initiated with the $886-million acquisition of the Los Angeles-based Thrifty chain in 1986.

Pacific Ligthting’s real estate holdings will be sold in two simultaneous transactions. Presley will be bought primarily by Lyon, with a small but unspecified interest shared by Presley Chief Executive Wade Cable and other Presley management personnel. Pacific Lighting acquired Presley in 1984 for $100 million in stock.

The remaining Pacific Lighting real estate companies--Blackfield Hawaii Corp., a Honolulu-based developer of single-family homes, condominiums, office buildings and shopping centers, and two Santa Ana-based firms, Dunn Properties Corp, a commercial-industrial developer, and Fredricks Development Corp, which builds and sells apartment complexes, will be sold to Senior Corp., a Miami-based real estate firm.

No Conflict Seen

Two years ago William Lyon Co., a major Southern California home building company in which Lyon is the primary owner, and James D. Harper Jr., a former Continental Illinois National Bank executive, bought Senior Corp. for $141 million. Lyon Co. and Harper each hold a 50% interest in Senior Corp.

Lyon, 74, denied Wednesday that his ownership of two major Southern California home building firms would pose a conflict. “It is like mixing apples and oranges,” he said, noting that Presley generally builds more upscale housing than Lyon Co. and has entered different markets.

Last year William Lyon Co. also bought Golden West Homes, a Santa Ana-based mobile home manufacturing company.

Lyon formerly was a principal owner and chairman of AirCal, a regional airline once based in Newport Beach. He denied Wednesday that the pending acquisition will be funded from the approximately $15 million profit he realized last year from the sale of AirCal to American Airlines. He declined to give the source of financing.