MARYVILLE, Tennessee (Reuters) - Clayton Homes Inc. shareholders narrowly approved a $1.7 billion takeover by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Wednesday, ending a four-month fight over the maker of manufactured homes.

Investors holding 52 percent of Clayton shares approved the deal, according to preliminary results of a vote announced by the company at its headquarters in Maryville, Tennessee. Clayton needed more than 50 percent for the deal to go through.

The final results of the vote are expected in several days.

The vote ended a struggle between Clayton's management, which accepted Berkshire's offer on April 1, and several institutional shareholders who complained that the selling price was too low.

Berkshire's deal is valued at $12.50 a share in cash. Clayton shares were trading at $12.50, off 4 cents, on the New York Stock Exchange after the vote result.

The vote was postponed two weeks ago, when Clayton decided to give other groups time to mount a rival offer. No other offers emerged.

"Our prospects for growth are much better now," Kevin Clayton, chief executive of Clayton, and son of founder James Clayton, told Reuters in an interview after the vote. "We have a reliable form of capital at a lower cost for customer mortgages."

The manufactured home industry has been hit by tough times because finance companies have avoided giving loans to the industry's typically low-income customers. Overzealous lenders caused a surge in demand for the homes in the late 1990s, but that led to rising loan defaults as the economy soured.

Berkshire is already a major financier for Clayton and the acquisition is expected to allow Clayton access to cheaper financing, giving it an advantage over rivals such as Fleetwood Enterprises Inc. and Champion Enterprises Inc. .

Several shareholders, led by money manager Bermuda-based Orbis Investment Management Ltd, opposed the sale, saying Clayton was selling out cheap when prospects for the manufactured home industry were looking up after a slump.

"Management will have to live with the part they played in forcing the independent shareholders to sell the company against their wishes at the bottom of the cycle," Orbis President William Gray said in a statement after the vote.

Several institutional investors voted against the deal, but the Clayton family, which owns 28 percent of the company, swung the vote in favour of the Buffett deal.