Chinese property developer Evergrande Group is understood to be the party behind a takeover bid for British luxury housebuilder Cala Homes, which could be worth as much as £700m.

It emerged last week that Cala, which is the UK’s largest private housebuilder, had been approached by a Chinese company being advised by KPMG over preliminary takeover talks.

Evergrande, which counts Alibaba chief executive Jack Ma among its shareholders and is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, is in the early stages of a deal, Sky News reported.

 

Cala builds large, high-end homes across the country, in affluent areas in the Midlands, Scotland, and around the M25, in what chief executive Alan Brown described as “Waitrose-type markets”. Its average selling price is £538,000, far higher than the UK average of £202,389.

Its owners Legal & General and Patron Capital have enlisted Lazard to help broker a deal to sell, three years after they bought the company for £210m.

A spokesman for Cala declined to comment on the specific details of a potential deal, but said: “Thanks to the quality of our brand and strong financial and trading performance, from time to time we may find ourselves the subject of speculation but from our perspective it is very much business as usual.”

Earlier this month, the reported an 18pc jump in pre-tax profits to £60.1m, with revenue up 15pc to £587.1m. Mr Brown said that while the company eyed up an IPO in 2014, it was not planning to list in the near future and was focused on reaching a revenue target of £1bn.

Evergrande recently announced its intention to sell a number of its non-core assets, including dairy, water and oil businesses. It is currently a shareholder in professional football club Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao FC

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