Bass-Led Investor Group Acquires 7.2% of HomeFed

A group led by Idanta Partners, a La Jolla investment firm whose principal owners are the Bass brothers of Texas, has acquired 7.2% of HomeFed Corp.’s outstanding shares, according to a Friday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Idanta founder and general partner David J. Dunn on Friday maintained that his firm acquired the HomeFed stock for investment purposes only. He said his group has no plans to take over HomeFed, which is based in San Diego, and combine the savings and loan with American Savings, the Irvine-based thrift that is owned by a group headed by Robert F. Bass, one of Idanta’s investors.

Idanta acquired nearly all its 1.6 million HomeFed shares between Oct. 17 and 23, paying from $4.54 to $6.675 per share. Over the past several months, Idanta also has acquired positions in Wells Fargo and Security Pacific Bank, as well as HomeFed, Dunn said.

With a total investment portfolio valued at $100 million, Idanta is best known for investments in high-technology stocks such as Apple Computer, Sun Microsystems and Intel. It has also provided venture capital to a number of start-up high technology firms, including Pacific Communications Sciences of San Diego and Iomega of Utah. Dunn is a former chairman of Prime Computer.

Dunn, 60, said that the Bass brothers were not aware of Idanta’s HomeFed investment until news services reported it. “I haven’t talked to Bob Bass in two or three years,” Dunn said. SEC flings made on Friday identify Idanta as a Texas limited partnership whose “principal business is investing and reinvesting its assets in securities of all kinds.”

HomeFed President Robert Adelizzi said Friday that HomeFed knows little about Idanta, other than that the La Jolla group “has an excellent reputation.” Adelizzi said he was “not surprised” by Idanta’s stock purchases because, for months, HomeFed has publicly stated that its stock is undervalued.

The Idanta-led group is now one of the HomeFed’s largest shareholders.