Castle Bidco agrees £715m deal for Crest Nicholson
08/03/2007
Castle Bidco Ltd, a consortium including HBOS and Scottish property tycoon Tom Hunter, has today reached an agreement to acquire UK housebuilder Crest Nicholson in a deal worth £715m.
The takeover was agreed after the initial deadline for concluding the deal was extended by 24 hours from 5pm last night. Castle Bidco, which already owns 23 per cent of the business, will pay a cash consideration of 620 pence per share and receive a final dividend payment worth 9.7 pence per share.
Crest had rejected Castle's previous offer of 585 pence per share.
The acquisition is Hunter and HBOS' second collaboration in seven months, having jointly acquired retirement home builder McCarthy & Stone for £1.06bn in August last year.
Based in Weybridge, Crest Nicholson operates throughout the South East, Midlands, East Anglia and parts of the South West. Company results released in January showed pre-tax profits of £80.1m on a turnover of £690.7m.
