Who Owns Sun Communities Inc and How It Grew

Sun Communities Inc, a leading manufacturer of mobile homes, has a fascinating ownership history. The company was founded by Robert S. Shay in 1971.

Sun Communities Inc has grown significantly over the years, expanding its portfolio of manufactured home communities through strategic acquisitions. Today, the company owns and operates over 400 communities across the United States and Canada.

Robert Shay's vision for Sun Communities Inc was to create a company that would provide affordable housing options for middle-class families. He achieved this goal through a combination of innovative business practices and strategic investments.

Sun Communities Inc has a long history of innovation, dating back to the 1970s when the company first began to develop its manufactured home communities.

Sun Communities, a leading provider of manufactured home communities, has a diverse shareholder base. The majority of shareholders come from the United States, with 67.75% of ownership.

The company's largest shareholder group is from the United States, with a significant presence from Norway, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Norway accounts for 11.07% of shares, while the United Kingdom holds 9.66%.

Canada and Japan are also significant shareholder groups, with 4.43% and 2.69% ownership, respectively. Australia rounds out the top five shareholder countries.

Here's a breakdown of the top shareholder countries:

The remaining shareholder countries, while smaller in number, still hold a significant amount of shares.

Sun Communities has a rich history of growth and expansion. The company was founded by Milton M. Shiffman, a doctor who began investing in real estate in 1964.

In 1975, Shiffman established the predecessor to Sun Communities, and by 1981, he had retired from his medical practice to focus on the company. He and his son, Gary A. Shiffman, began acquiring and expanding manufactured housing communities.

Sun Communities went public as a REIT in December 1993, raising $145.8 million through an initial public offering. This marked a significant turning point for the company, enabling it to expand rapidly through acquisitions.

In the first year of operating as a public REIT, Sun acquired 15 properties for $92 million, expanding into new markets and increasing its revenue to $32.3 million.

Sun Communities began expanding rapidly after its IPO, which raised $145.8 million. In January 1994, it acquired Timberline Estates, a manufactured community with 296 sites located near Grand Rapids, Michigan.

The company's growth didn't stop there. In March 1994, Sun purchased Meadow Lake Estates for $12 million, increasing its Michigan-based holdings to 12. This was just the beginning of an aggressive expansion plan.

By July of that year, Sun had acquired seven more communities and set plans in motion to sell an additional 3.5 million shares of its common stock. This move was seen as a strategic effort to continue growing while the REIT market was still popular with investors.

Sun's expansion paid off, and by the end of 1994, the company had the best-performing stock among manufactured housing REITs. Chateau Properties's stock was second in the ranking.

During its first year of operating as a public REIT, Sun acquired 15 properties for $92 million, and expanded into Florida and St. Louis, Missouri. It also secured revenues of $32.3 million and a net income of $7.8 million.

In 1995, Sun continued to expand, adding 3,900 new sites to its inventory. The company's President, Gary Shiffman, explained the benefits of using operating partnership units to fund acquisitions, stating that it created opportunities to acquire quality communities that would not otherwise be available.

Sun's growth was fueled by the popularity of manufactured housing, which was the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. real estate industry at the time. By year-end 1995, the company had acquired two new communities in Florida as well as two in Austin, Texas, which was considered the fastest-growing area in the state in terms of population and job creation.

By 2002, market conditions had taken a toll on Sun Communities, with sales dropping to $145.7 million and profits plummeting to $13.6 million.

The company's sales rebounded nicely in 2003, reaching $193.5 million, but it wasn't until 2007 that Sun started to see significant signs of recovery, with sales of new and preowned units increasing to 712.

Occupancy rates in Sun's communities dropped below 90 percent in 2004, and by 2005, they had fallen to below 85 percent, where they remained for two more years.

Acquisitions of additional communities fell off dramatically from 2006 to 2009, and despite aggressive cost-cutting actions, Sun's profitability numbers took a hit each year during this period.

The number of revenue-producing sites owned by the company increased by 224 in 2009, the first such gain of 200 or more since 2000.

By 2012, the number of new or preowned units sold to residents had reached 1,742, a significant increase from the 965 units sold in 2008.