Housebuilder Bovis Homes PLC (LON:BVS) revealed it will take around a £2.8mln one-off charge for advisory fees related to two failed takeover talks and its strategic review conducted in February, as it said current trading remains in line with expectations.
In April, smaller rival Galliford Try plc (LON:GFRD) pulled out of a £1.2bn bid to buy Bovis after the two failed to agree on price, a week after another potential suitor Redrow plc (LON:RDW) had also withdrawn its interest in the firm.
READ: Bovis Homes rejects a merger with the smaller rival
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The takeover moves came in the wake of a profit warning from Bovis at the end of 2016 when it said it failed to build enough homes, prompting its chief executive, David Ritchie to quit and the strategic review move.
In the update ahead of today’s annual general meeting, aside from the one-off charge, Bovis said its current trading has been in line with expectations having announced in February that it would slow its rate of production for 2017.
Completion volumes to be around 10% to 15% below the 2016 level
The group plans to deliver completion volumes around 10% to 15% below the 2016 level before returning to normal industry production level, with around 1,500 completions expected in the first 6 months of 2017.
In its statement, Bovis said: “Customer interest in our homes remains strong with prospects per active outlet consistently ahead of the prior year level for the past 8 weeks.
“The Group's sales rate of 0.48 net private reservations per site per week for the year to date is in-line with our 2017 production plans.“
Greg Fitzgerald, Bovis’s newly appointed chief executive said: "I am confident that Bovis will return to being a leading UK housebuilder and excited by the challenge ahead.”
He added: “By the end of June I will have visited all our developments and met the majority of our people; we have already identified improvements to streamline the business, provide greater focus and be more agile."
Fitzgerald, who took over at Bovis on April 18, is the former chief executive and chairman of Galliford, where he spent over 30 years of his career.