McCarthy & Stone set for £1 billion return to the stock market

Retirement builder McCarthy & Stone finally fired the starting gun on a £1 billion stock market return today nearly a decade after it was disastrously taken private on the eve of the credit crunch.

The long-speculated move comes after talks with potential private equity buyers including Bridgepoint came to nothing.

The float will deliver a major payday for Goldman Sachs as well as private equity firms TPG, Anchorage and Strategic Value Partners, who collectively own 57%. A further 26 unnamed investors own the rest.

McCarthy & Stone was founded in 1977 and taken private for £1.1 billion in 2006 by a consortium including Sir Tom Hunter and the billionaire Reuben brothers. But the financial crisis wiped them out.

Chief executive Clive Fenton — who has described his target customers as the “fastest growing demographic in the UK” — said the firm would raise £70 million from the sale of new shares to invest in land and building.