Scandal-hit homeless accommodation provider Home Reit (HOME ) has given Bluestar Group another month to firm up its potential cash bid for the real estate investment trust.

Home said discussions with Bluestar, a real estate lender founded by Ben Gotlieb, a former employee of its manager Alvarium Investments, were still ongoing as it requested an extension of the deadline under the City’s takeover code to 13 April.

Bluestar approached Home a few days before its annual general meeting on 20 February. The Reit, whose shares have been suspended since the New Year, said the deadline could be extended further and there was no certainty an offer would be made.  

The announcement came a day after Home said it was considering a ‘material change’ to its investment policy as it began to assess ‘a number’ of groups vying to replace Alvarium as fund manager.

Jennifer Morrissey, partner at Harcus Parker, the law firm that is seeking to launch a shareholder class action against Home, said the update on the strategic review was ‘totally unsatisfactory’ as it ‘bypasses the question of accountability as to the viability and execution of the existing policy by those who were responsible.’

‘No clarity has been given, and either Alvarium seem to be trying to wash their hands of Home Reit or Home Reit of Alvarium,’ she said.

RM Funds, one of the groups hoping to win the Home mandate, was pleased the board was considering an alternative to the sale of the company, which he believed would not deliver an attractive price for shareholders.

Winterflood’s head of investment companies, Emma Bird, said Home’s future appears ‘even more uncertain’ giving the number of possible outcomes, and with investigations into its annual results ongoing.