Taylor Wimpey may turn to private equity despite bank rescue

Speaking after the company announced a £1.5bn loss on Wednesday, he said he wouldn’t dismiss any fundraising options despite the likelihood of the group’s banks easing pressure on it by relaxing their lending terms.

He said: “Our first priority is to get the covenant negotiations completed. After that we will look at fresh options.”

A private equity source close to the company said: “The bank deal will buy it time but it still has a longer-term need for fresh cash.”

Redfern said he was confident that the talks would reach a successful resolution but said this was “a number of weeks away”.

Kevin Cammack, an analyst at Kaupthing, said the prospect of a bank deal was the crucial piece of news from its financial results for the six months to 30 June 2008.

Over the period, the firm made a pre-tax loss of £1.5bn on turnover of £1.9bn. This followed a land writedown of £690m and a goodwill writedown of £816m after last year’s merger of Taylor Woodrow and George Wimpey.

Elsewhere, pre-tax profit slumped by 80% at Bovis Homes in the first half of the year, from £58.4m to £11.7m, and turnover dropped 43% from £260m to £149.3m.