Property developer Terrace Hill (THG) has conditionally agreed to buy unlisted property group Urban&Civic in a deal valued at £95.3m. The combined entity will be known as Urban&Civic and will move from the Alternative Investment Market to a full market listing.
To finance the deal, the enlarged group has announced a share placing designed to raise £170m before expenses. The new shares have been priced at 225p following a proposed 10-for-one share consolidation. Around half of the proceeds will be used to develop two strategic sites currently owned by Urban&Civic in Alconbury Weald near Huntingdon, and another site in Rugby, which between them are big enough to build 11,200 houses with a build out value estimated at £2.7bn.
Alconbury will be developed over the next 20 years, with plans for 5,000 houses and 3.1m sq ft of commercial space, and work is expected to start in the third quarter of this year. The second site at Rugby has outline planning consent for 6,200 houses and 1.3m sq ft of commercial space, with delivery of the first houses expected some time in the third quarter of 2015. Around £50m will be used to develop the sites, while £30m of the funds raised will be used for current commercial developments.
