Taylor Wimpey to raise funds via accelerated bookbuild

Taylor Wimpey will sell new shares in order to be able to take full advantage of "significant near-term opportunities" in the land market.

The funds would be raised through a retail offer for ordinary shares, exclusively via www.primarybid.com, and a non-preemptive placing of shares by means of an accelerated bookbuilding process with the aim of raising roughly £500.0m.

The former began coinciding with announcement from the company, after the close of trading in London on Wednesday, with the retail price to be the same as that of the placing, which would be determined via the bookbuild.

Company boss, Pete Redfern said: "We are today launching an approximately £500 million equity raise from a position of strength, to enable us to take advantage of these near term opportunities.

"[...] We have seen robust demand for our homes throughout the lockdown period and have been encouraged by the continued resilience of the housing market as we have returned to our developments. Our order book remains strong with a healthy increase in reservations in recent weeks."

Critically, the retail offer would close at the same time as the bookbuilding and might conclude early if the latter were oversubscribed, the company said.

There was a minimum subscription amount of £50 for retail investors and a maximum value of €8.0m shares allocated to the retail tranche at the placing price.