Overwhelming majority of shareholders back deal
Redrow and Barratt’s shareholders have approved a proposed merger between the two housebuilders.
Both businesses held meetings this morning in connection with the recommended all-share deal, which is worth £2.5bn.
More than 99% of shares at both firms voted in favour of the deal, which would create a housebuilding giant.
When the deal was announced in February, Barratt’s board said the move would generate pre-tax cost savings of at least £90m a year by the third year after the completion.
Under the deal, Barratt shareholders will own around two-thirds of the share capital of the combined group, to be known as Barratt Redrow, with shareholders of Redrow owning the remaining third.
It now only remains for regulators to approve the deal.
The Competition and Markets Authority announced in March that it had opened an investigation into the deal and whether it “may be expected to result in a substantial lessening of competition”.
Between them the pair delivered more than 22,000 homes last year.
Barratt is already the largest housebuilder in the UK in terms of income while Redrow ranked seventh in Housing Today’s Top 50 Housebuilders list last year, which ranks firms by turnover.
>> Read more: Barratt’s acquisition of Redrow: the numbers and key players
An “invitation to comment” issued by the CMA reached its deadline on 2 April.
Barratt and Redrow are also among eight housebuilders being probed by the watchdog over potential “anti-competitive behaviour”.
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