Elliott-owned housebuilder Avant clinches deal with lenders

Yahoo

2 days ago

A major British housebuilder owned by the prominent investor Elliott Management has clinched a refinancing deal with its lenders amid growing financial pressure on the industry over cladding-related liabilities.
Sky News has learnt that Avant Homes, which has been owned by Elliott since 2021, has reached an agreement with a syndicate of lenders to provide additional financial headroom to the company.
Details of the refinancing were unclear on Tuesday, although a source close to Elliott insisted that it had not committed any new capital to Avant as part of it.
Avant sold more than 1,750 homes in the year to 30 June 2023, the last for which results are available, and recorded revenue of almost £500m.
However, in recent months there has been growing industry speculation about the company's financial health as cladding-related exposures hit housebuilders across the industry.
In recent weeks, investment bankers have been canvassing interest from rival housebuilders about a takeover of Avant, although sources close to Elliott and Avant denied that any such process was being conducted on their behalf.
Avant is chaired by Jeff Fairburn, who left Persimmon in 2018 amid a City outcry over his vast pay package.
Elliott's deal to buy Avant was engineered through Berkeley DeVeer, in which it was already a shareholder.
Last year, Sky News revealed that Avant had tabled an offer to acquire the London-listed housebuilder Crest Nicholson, although the proposal was ultimately unsuccessful.
Avant and Elliott both declined to comment.