Wilson Bowden chairman staying on to oversee sale

David Wilson, co-founder and chairman of the housebuilder Wilson Bowden, has postponed his retirement amid the £2bn takeover tussle for the company.

Mr Wilson reaches the company's retirement age of 65 next week. However, the company said yesterday that he would remain in post for another 12 months on the same terms and conditions. That will allow him to oversee the takeover talks as the battle for the company's future hots up.

It is understood that an information memorandum has been sent out to as many as 12 potential bidders, a number of whom have already visited the company's data room. Among the 12 are the rival builders George Wimpey, Redrow and Bellway. There has also been interest from private equity firms, as well as other "trade buyers" thought to be from the UK rather than overseas.

Over the weekend it emerged that the three had made preliminary approaches to the company, which has appointed HSBC to advise it.

A sale of the business would be the UK's biggest in the £19bn new homes market, eclipsing even the £1.1bn bid for the retirement home builder MacCarthy & Stone by a Bank of Scotland-led consortium.

Shares in Wilson Bowden, which have soared since the start of the year, eased slightly yesterday, finishing down 23p at 2,206p.

Mr Wilson has a 22 per cent stake in the company, which is valued at more than £500m. The executive chairman was paid £795,000, down on the previous year's £1.05m, in 2005.

The housebuilder's projects include a new town, being built at the site of the former Ravenscraig steel plant in Scotland, which will involve the creation of 820 new homes and a multimillion-pound sports facility, as well as the relocation of Motherwell College to a new campus. David Wilson Homes, the company's main brand, constructs a variety of properties which had an average price of £206,300 in the first half of its financial year.