McInerney looking for new buys

House builder McInerney is on the look-out for more acquisitions in Britain, the company's management confirmed after its annual general meeting (agm) yesterday.

Executive director Mark Shakespeare said it has a full-time acquisitions team on the ground in Britain.

"We're always looking, we have an appetite to do more acquisitions, but we're going to be careful about what we buy," he said.

In February, McInerney paid €9 million for Augusta, a builder based in England's south midlands that specialises in social housing.

Executive director Enda Cunningham said yesterday that the Augusta purchase had been successfully "bedded down" with McInerney's existing business in the UK.

Mr Shakespeare said that Britain would provide the company with "accelerated growth" over the next two years.

McInerney built 658 houses there last year, compared with 1,100 in Ireland. It expects British and Irish output to level off some time in 2007.

The company has already built a base in the north of England and is seeking to expand into the west and south midlands of that country.

The company is continuing to expand in the Republic. It recently acquired a site in Macroom, Co Cork, with outline planning permission for 200 units, and has also bought a site in Athlone, Co Westmeath.

Mr Cunningham pointed out that road developments and transport changes had opened up opportunities in towns that it would not have targeted in the past.

In a statement yesterday, McInerney said that it is operating in 33 sites around the State.

"Our landbank of 4,700 plots is regionally well spread," it said.