US private equity investor Lone Star has launched a bid to buy leading UK retirement housebuilder McCarthy & Stone for £630 mln (€700 mln).
The offer values McCarthy & Stone at £1.15 a share, a premium of 39% to Thursday’s closing price of 83 pence, but still well below pre-pandemic levels, when the housebuilder’s shares were trading at £1.58.
‘McCarthy & Stone represents an attractive opportunity in a market underpinned by clear fundamentals: a rapidly ageing population and a structural undersupply of suitable housing options for older people,’ said Donald Quintin, president of Lone Star Europe.
Lone Star is making the investment through its Lone Star Real Estate Fund VI.
McCarthy & Stone's directors, who have been advised by Rothschild & Co and Deutsche Bank on the acquisition, said that they consider the financial terms of the deal to be ‘fair and reasonable’ and are unanimously recommending the offer.
Commenting on the acquisition, Paul Lester, chairman of McCarthy & Stone, said: ‘The all-cash offer represents a compelling and attractive opportunity for shareholders to realise and crystallise their investment in McCarthy & Stone in the near term and also provides a meaningful premium to the prevailing share price notwithstanding the backdrop of the wider risks posed by the political and macro-economic environment.’
