Wilson Connolly chief executive expected to head one of three regional divisions of £3bn-turnover business.
The UK housing business of Taylor Woodrow will be restructured into three regional operations if its £480m bid for Wilson Connolly is approved by shareholders.

The offer, revealed by Building last week and publicly announced on Monday, will create a business with a £3bn turnover that builds nearly 10,500 homes in the UK.

The takeover, if it goes ahead as expected, will lead to a significant increase in the output of Taylor Woodrow's housing arm, which now builds 6200 homes a year. This has long been the ambition of Iain Napier, the chief executive of Taylor Woodrow. Wilcon will become part of the Bryant brand at Taywood.

Graeme McCallum, chief executive of Wilson Connolly, will join the board of Taylor Woodrow. He will head one of the regional divisions. McCallum told Building: "The indication that I have had, subject to the deal going through, is that I will be one of the operations directors of the UK housing business."

The heads of the two current regional divisions (northern and southern) are Tony Wilby and Denis MacDaid. They will be given equivalent positions in the restructure. The details of how the operations are to be divided geographically has yet to be agreed.

The remainder of the Wilson Connolly board will not join Taylor Woodrow. Wilson Connolly chairman Allan Leighton is the highest profile casualty of the takeover.

I’ll be one of the new operations directors of the UK housing arm

Graeme McCallum, chief executive, Wilson Connolly

Peter Johnson, finance director of Wilson Connolly, said most of the 300 redundancies will be made at senior and support staff levels.

Johnson added: "Six per cent of the combined workforce will go. At site level we don't expect any job cuts, it is more about having only one board and only needing one of each [type of role] at senior level."

The deal will take gearing at Taylor Woodrow from 25% to 67%, if it is approved. The amount that the firm has to borrow could be reduced if it sells the St Katherine's Docks Estates business in east London. This is expected to fetch at least £180m.

Chris Millington, a housebuilding analyst at Bridgewell, said: "Gearing is at just over 65% and we are quite happy with that. It is less geared than a firm like Westbury."

Taylor Woodrow tried to sell the business two years ago but was thrown off balance by the economic fallout from 11 September. Johnson confirmed that it had since been approached about the St Katherine's Dock Estates business by potential buyers but the talks had never led to a firm offer.

Countdown to a takeover

Mid-June Taylor Woodrow makes a preliminary, informal approach to the board of Wilson Connolly about a possible takeover.

Mid-July Taywood returns to Wilcon with a more serious approach.

End of July Wilcon board decides to open more detailed discussions with Taywood.

26 August Wilcon board decides formally to consider the offer and delegates final decision to an offer committee.

29 August Building reveals Taywood takeover offer and the probability that it will become public at the companies’ interim results announcement the following week.

1 September Taywood announces £480m takeover offer to London Stock Exchange.