UK housebuilders in £5bn merger

Taylor Woodrow and George Wimpey today unveiled merger plans to create the UK’s biggest housebuilder.

The new company, to be called Taylor Wimpey, will boast a market value of £5bn (€7.4bn) with combined annual sales of more than £6.7bn (€10bn), building 31,000 houses a year in the UK and North America.

The all-share deal will produce cost savings of £70m (€1.3m) a year, the two firms said.

Both companies have suffered from the slowdown in the US housing market and said the merger would allow the new company to benefit from a recovery.

The deal is the latest consolidation move in the sector, eclipsing Barratt’s £2.2bn (€3.25m) deal for Wilson Bowden in February.