Johnson plans property float

Entrepreneurial property developer Christopher Johnson, whose previous venture Honeygrove was bought by Oakdene Homes in 2004 for £9.5 million, is lining up an AIM comeback through Kent-based Chequer Homes.

Johnson hopes to raise about £1.5 million in March or April for Chequer, which has already acquired six sites for 11 or 12 deals. As with Honeygrove (‘why change a winning formula?’), Chequer’s strategy will be to buy land and build or refurbish houses – not flats, insists Johnson – for sale.

‘It is all about buying land,’ he argues, suggesting that Chequer could be on track for pre-tax profits in the region of £750,000 in the year to March 2007. Accountant MRI Moores Rowland and broker Insinger de Beaufort will help with the flotation, which Johnson expects to be priced on a prospective p/e ratio of four, ‘half the sector average’.

He envisages keeping about 60 per cent of Chequer Homes in his own or family hands. Alex Johnson, his son, is a director of the company, which Johnson claims faces encouraging prospects in today’s environment of low interest rates.

Leslie Copeland

Leslie Copeland

Leslie was made Editor for Growth Company Investor magazine in 2000, then headed up the launch of Business XL magazine, and then became Editorial Director in 2007 for the online and print publication portfolio...

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