Wednesday, July 02, 2008

With a Wimpey

Taylor Wimpey today admitted that it has been unable to secure nearly £500 million in funding from investors, putting Britain's largest house builder at risk of breaching its banking covenants.

Shares in the company plunged 49.7 per cent to 30.5p after it blamed "current market conditions" for its failure to raise new capital.

Peter Redfern, chief executive at Taylor Wimpey, said the company had managed to secure a proportion of the capital from its existing shareholders, but was unable to raise the remaining sum from new investors "within a short period of time".

Mr Redfern said the company would pursue its existing strategy of tapping investors for money ......

"Its existing strategy of tapping investors for money". Hmmmmmm, I don't think I've heard panhandling described as strategic before.

I refer you to my comments of last year.

To recap, Godfrey Mitchell built Wimpey up from practically nothing into a group that may have been the biggest contractor in the world by the Seventies.

Since he retired it has done little but decline.

A warning from history perhaps for the post-Gates Microsoft.

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