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Johnson plans property float

By Robert Tyerman on January 25 2006

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.

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