McCarthy chief stirs up hornets' nest

RETIREMENT homes builder McCarthy & Stone was today forced to put out a formal profit forecast after its deputy chairman and chief executive Keith Lovelock was caught on the hop by a Reuters journalist.

After what one adviser described as 'some toing and fro-ing' between McCarthy's investment bankers at UBS and the Takeover Panel, Lovelock's casual phrase 'we would expect to overachieve' was given the full - and doubtless costly - backing of its auditors Ernst & Young.

But Lovelock's comment and today's announcement are ancient history in that they refer to brokers' consensus forecasts of profits of £98.5m in the year to the end of August, as they stood two weeks ago.

That was when McCarthy rejected a takeover bid from founder and chairman John McCarthy. Immediately, most brokers raised their estimates, pushing the consensus up to £103m.

The shares fell 5p to 506 1/2p with observers still expecting John McCarthy to launch a 575p-a-share bid.