Ireland’s Gallagher Holdings has acquired the remaining stake in housebuilder Abbey.
The family business from Abbey’s executive chairman Charles Gallagher has made an offer for the 4.4% stake, valuing the business at £328.8m.
The bid of £15.75 per share represents a 1.6% premium to Abbey’s closing price of £15.50 on 9 December and a 19.8% premium to the average closing price over the past 12 months.
It would see the group pay out £14.4m to take the Irish housebuilder private after building up its stake.
The acquisition follows a string of housebuilder buys, on the back of weakened share prices in the wake of Covid-19.
US private equity giant Lone Star recently received shareholder approval for the £647m acquisition of McCarthy & Stone, Wellcome Trust is buying Urban&Civic for £506m and analysts have noted others including Crest Nicholson, Vestry and Redrow as potential targets.
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