Bid looms for ailing Crest Nicholson

Published 26th Apr 2010

Hugh Osmond’s acquisitions vehicle is lining up a £350 million bid approach for the troubled housebuilder Crest Nicholson.

Last week the British entrepreneur, who created Punch Taverns and Pearl Assurance, outlined his plan to buy and restructure Crest Nicholson in a presentation to bank lenders.

Crest has yet to respond formally to Mr Osmond’s plan to use Horizon, which raised about £420 million from a stock market listing this year, to reinvigorate the housebuilder. However, if news of the talks significantly affects Horizon’s share price today, the Takeover Panel is likely to ask for the discussions to be confirmed in a statement to investors.

Lloyds Banking Group, which inherited an interest in Crest through its acquisition of HBOS in 2008, led lenders that seized control of about 90 per cent of the equity last year in exchange for writing off about £630 million of its debts.

Crest is one of six companies that Horizon has been talking to since its listing. It plans to target a stable company with an enterprise value — debt and equity combined — of as much as £3 billion that is battling to reduce its debts.

Horizon and Lloyds declined to comment.

Source: ' Times '

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