Bovis unveils placing for land buys

House builder Bovis Homes unveiled a placing to raise 60 million pounds on Thursday to take advantage of opportunities in the residential land market.

Bovis said it is placing up to 12.1 million shares, which represent approximately 10 percent of the group's share capital.

Rival Berkeley Group raised 50 million pounds in February to invest in new land and to take advantage of an anticipated slump in land prices.

Bovis posted a drop in underlying pretax profit last week but reported stronger trading in the first half, supporting a growing trend of stabilisation in the UK housing market.

The house builder said the placing will be used to buy residential land assets for development, with Deutsche Bank and RBS Hoare Govett Ltd acting as joint book-runners.

"The proposed placing will provide Bovis Homes with further financial flexibility to take advantage of attractive opportunities in the short to medium term to acquire land for development as such opportunities arise" it said in a statement.