Investor Schroders plots Bovis merger with Berkeley - Sunday Times

(Reuters) - Bovis Homes Group Plc investor Schroder Investment Management has written to Berkeley Group Holdings Plc, urging the London builder to consider an all-share merger with its smaller rival, the Sunday Times reported. Housebuilder Redrow Plc is monitoring the situation after Schroders, Bovis's second-biggest shareholder with a stake of about 6.4 percent, moved to push for a sale of Bovis, the Times said. (http://bit.ly/2jPDI6f) Bovis said earlier in January that chief executive David Ritchie had quit, days after the housebuilder warned on profit because it failed to complete the number of homes it expected by the end of 2016. The British property market has been generally resilient since the EU vote, defying predictions of a downturn, and the average price of the homes Bovis completed in 2016 was up about 10 percent on a year earlier. Bovis, Berkeley, Redrow, and Schroders could not immediately be reached for comment. (Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Bengaluru; editing by Andrew Roche)