Cala Homes - the housebuilder sold by Lloyds Banking Group to Legal & General and private equity firm Patron a year ago - made a push into the buoyant South today with a £200 million bid for luxury builder Banner Homes.
Cala is based in Edinburgh but Banner focuses on upmarket houses in the Home Counties and Midlands with an average selling price of £511,000.
It also has a presence in Greater London with sites at Edgware, Kingston and Purley. Since 2002 it has been controlled by the wealthy Prowting family, who have seen a five-fold return on the price they originally paid for their 75% stake.
The deal creates a firm employing 600 people with sales of more than £500 million. Legal & General and Patron plan to grow annual turnover to £800 million by 2017, selling 2000 homes a year.
Alan Brown, Cala’s chief executive since 2009, said: “Banner has a deserved reputation as one of the finest luxury housebuilders in the UK and combining the two businesses will put us in the top 10 with significant growth potential.”
Lloyds is said to be close to offloading Avant Homes, its last housebuilding asset inherited from its disastrous HBOS deal.
