Housing merger

Barratt Group is set to become the UK's largest house builder, following the announcement of its planned acquisition of Wilson Bowden.

The cash and shares deal values Wilson Bowden at UK£ 2,2 billion (3,33 billion), a +23% premium on the company's share price prior to its November announcement that it had received a takeover approach.

Wilson Bowden had sales of UK£ 1,23 billion (€ 1,86 billion) in 2005, and it completed 5207 houses that year. Barratt, the larger group, had sales of UK£ 2,43 billion (€ 3,68 billion) and 14601 completions last year.

If the acquisition goes ahead, the merged group will have sales of around UK£ 3,7 billion (€ 5,6 billion), with some 20000 housing completions per year.

According to our CE-100 ranking of Europe's largest contractors, this level of sales would see it firmly established as one of the region's 15 largest construction companies, and the UK's largest house builder.