One of Britain’s biggest property developers is being linked with a takeover of rival house builder CALA.
Persimmon, which has a market value of £4.7billion, is understood to be mulling a bid ahead of a deadline next week, according to Sky News.
CALA, which is owned by Legal & General (L&G), has a price tag of around £1billion.
The auction comes amid an election campaign in which housebuilding is expected to figure prominently.
Persimmon is currently Britain’s third-largest housebuilder, behind Taylor Wimpey and Barratt Developments.
Rival housebuilders are also expected to consider bids for CALA, which builds 3,000 homes per year, including Taylor Wimpey and Avant Homes, according to Sky News.
The sale, overseen by bankers at Rothschild, will take place next week. It comes after L&G brought in a new chief executive, António Simões, in January.
The former HSBC and Santander executive replaced prominent business leader Sir Nigel Wilson at the helm of the firm.
CALA started life as The City of Aberdeen Land Association and its Granite City roots run back as far as 1875.
Legal & General first invested in the business in 2013 and increased its stake to 100% in 2018.