Japan's Advantage Partners to buy home builder Yasuragi

TOKYO Jan 26 (Reuters) - Advantage Partners, one of Japan's largest private equity fund managers, will buy shares in home builder Yasuragi for 13 billion yen ($166 million) and take the company private, according to a statement issued by Yasuragi.

Advantage Partners, through a fund it manages, will buy the shares in Yasuragi from its shareholders as well as from the market. The Japanese buyout firm will pay 627 yen per share, a 60.8 percent premium to Thursday's close of 390 yen.

Yasuragi, which specialises in renovating houses and is based in Kiryu city in Gunma prefecture, north of Tokyo, expects to post a net profit of 280 million yen for the year ending this month, up 33 percent from the previous year.

It would be Advantage Partners' first major transaction since its buyout of Guam-based telecoms carrier GTA Teleguam last year. ($1 = 78.2250 Japanese yen) (Reporting by Junko Fujita; Editing by Michael Watson)