Galliford Try's housing business will operate under Linden Homes banner as takeover propels group into housebuilder top ten
Galliford Try has confirmed the purchase of Linden Homes for 拢244.5m.
The acquisition propels Galliford Try into the housebuilder top ten with a annual completions of about 3000 homes.
Galliford Try said there would be a number of redundancies at corporate level but said it did not expect any regional Linden offices to close.
The Linden Homes name will be retained in the south east of England, while the Try Homes businesses will operate under the Linden Homes names.
Galliford Try is also raising 拢150.3m with an issue of 100,230,056 new shares.
In a statement Linden said its chief executive Philip Davies would remain at the business for a six-month period to oversee the integration of the business.
Galliford Try announced this morning that it had increased pre-tax profit by a bumper 48% to 拢20.7m.
Revenue for the six months ended 31 December 2006 and the construction order book stood at 拢2.3 billion.
Housebuilding completions were 593 units during the period and the landbank stood a record level of 4,848 units.
Commenting on the results, chief executive Greg Fitzgerald said: 鈥淚 am pleased to report record results for the six months to 31 December 2006. We have successfully integrated Chartdale Homes and Morrison Construction, consolidated our position as a major force in the building and infrastructure markets in the UK, and are pushing forward with our strategy to expand our successful housebuilding business.鈥�
