Crest Nicholson's £660m bidder must raise offer or quit

The consortium that bid £660m for housebuilder Crest Nicholson has until Friday to raise its offer or walk away.

The “put up or shut up” deadline order was set by the takeover panel.

The joint bidders are Tom Hunter, the Scottish entrepreneur, and the HBOS bank, acting together through their Castle Bidco consortium.

The 585p-a-share offer was launched in November. It fell short of the mark needed to persuade the Crest management team to open its books and since then Crest has continued to refuse to give the bidders any additional detailed financial information.

Speculators who see a fresh bid in the offing say that HBOS is considering a bid of 620-625p. Crest is reported to be ready to shake hands if faced with an offer of 660p.

The City scents further action, with Crest’s shares trading openly at 612p, well ahead of the current 585p offer.

However, some warn that the talks will fall apart as the existing offer price – based on the traditional multiple of net asset values – is already sky-high.

The consortium has amassed a 27% stake in the housebuilder after combining a 4% stake already owned by HBOS’s fund management arm with a 23.3% stake bought from Heron International, the private property group run by Gerald Ronson.

Should the deal go through, Crest Nicholson could well be combined with one of the other housebuilders owned by HBOS.

The corporate division of HBOS, led by Peter Cummings, has built up stakes worth £300m in a series of housebuilding companies including Cala, Gladedale, Linden and Countryside Properties.