Taylor Wimpey cuts 1,900 jobs as profits plummet

Taylor Wimpey the house building firm announced today even more disturbing news regarding the UK housing market and its business, after a collapse in profits and having to get rid of 1,900 employees they have had to attend emergency talks with its bankers to work a way round £1.7 billion of debt.

With Taylor Wimpey’s order book falling around 40 percent in the first 44 weeks of the 2008, dropping from 11,074 for the same period last year to 6,607 this year.

With the average selling price of a Wimpey home down 15 percent and the build rate 40 percent its normal levels the home builder is feeling the pressure and pain of the collapsed UK housing market.

With market expects predicting it will be some time before we see the housing market pick up, some saying it could take until 2012 until the crisis is completely over, it’s highly speculated that Taylor Wimpey will be left no choice as to debt-for-equity swap. However, it is believed that the company bankers are restructuring terms to allow the company to continue to trade through the financial crisis.

Shares in Wimpey Taylor fell 5.6 percent today to 12.5p, over the past year the shares have lost 93 percent of their value.

Source: Guardian