好色先生TV

Speaking after the housebuilder released its results for the year to 31 October 2008, Stone (pictured) said last year鈥檚 figure of 拢544m would drop to below 拢400m this year. This reflects sales volumes at the company falling from 2,825 in 2008 to below 2,000 this year.

He said: 鈥淭he housebuilding sector won鈥檛 recover to the level of building 170,000 houses per year for some years. There will need to be a lot of de-mothballing and re-recruitment first.鈥�

Stephen Stone

Chief Executive, Crest Nicholson

The company made a pre-tax loss of 拢526m last year, but the figures were skewed by heavy writedowns that the company had to make in readiness for a financial rescue deal with its banks.

In March, Crest Nicholson announced a debt-for-equity swap with a group of 36 lenders that saw 拢630m of its 拢1.1bn debt exchanged for 90% of the company. Seven executive directors of the firm hold the remaining 10%.

Writedowns included 拢129.3m on land and work in progress and a total of 拢277.6m in goodwill to reflect the difference between the 拢1.1bn that was paid to take Crest private in March 2007 and the value of its assets.

鈥淭he figures reflect the fact that we had to clean up the balance sheet for the debt restructuring action we needed to take,鈥� said Stone.

He forecast that the housing market would not pick up until the middle of 2010 and said the company would try to hold sales levels steady until then.

He said: 鈥淚t鈥檚 too early to talk about 鈥榞reen shoots鈥�. The barriers are still quite high for buyers, given the loan-to-value arrangements that are available out there.鈥�

Stone said there were a number of private equity groups circling the sector at the moment that were searching for a bargain. 鈥淭here are lots of funds, particularly looking at strategic land,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he only dilemma that they have is when to jump in.鈥�