Barratt to trim debt with £200m land sale

Barratt, anxiously looking for ways to trim its £1.7bn of debt burden, is on the lookout for partners willing to invest in its strategic land bank by way of a joint venture partnership.

Barratt is already parting with some of its holding in Wilson Bowden Developments which came on board last year when Barratt paid £2.2bn to buy rival house builder Wilson Bowden at the peak of the house building boom.

The WBD deal should net Barratt about £200m.

This latest follow-up proposal offers the possibility of trimming a second slice of that overall debt figure.

The Financial Times today reports a JV partner could provide Barratt with between £100m and £200m.

The FT article reports that a JV deal would achieve two things for Barratt: “It might bring in some money now, and secondly, it would provide funds to invest in land in the medium-term when the company feels that housing land prices have reached rock bottom.”