Irish homebuilder Cairn to raise up to $446 million in London listing

By Pamela Barbaglia and Conor Humphries LONDON/DUBLIN (Reuters) - Irish construction firm Cairn Homes unveiled plans on Wednesday to list its shares on the London Stock Exchange , raising up to $446 million through a share placing with conditional trading set to start on 10 June. The first home builder in the country to float since Ireland's 2008 property market meltdown, the company said it expects to raise gross proceeds of between 350 million and 400 million euros ($390-446 million) via the placing with institutional and other professional investors at 1 euro a share. Separately, it said there will be a subscription for shares by directors of the company and an investment of approximately 29 million euros in equity and cash by Cairn's founders. Credit Suisse and Goodbody Stockbrokers are acting as joint global coordinators. Cairn Homes, which is chaired by former KBC Bank Ireland boss John Reynolds, focuses on construction projects in Dublin, the Dublin commuter belt, Cork and Galway. It was set up last year and has recently secured five sites with a total estimated gross development value of 366 million euros. Cairn aims to take advantage of substantial under supply in Ireland's housing market where less than 3,300 new build completions were delivered in Dublin in 2014 against a medium term demand of 8,000 to 10,000 homes a year. Cairn plans to start selling homes at a 50-acre site at Parkside, in north Dublin, in June. Its pipeline includes projects at the Navan site, near Dublin, and at Rahoon, approximately 2.5 miles from Galway city centre. Irish residential property prices fell by 50 percent in a crash that helped collapse the financial system, but have rebounded in the past two years and are now 38 percent below their peak. Dublin house prices increased by 20 percent in the year to April. McInerney Holdings in 1997 was the last Irish homebuilder to float on the stock market, Irish media reported, but it delisted in 2010. Real estate investment trust Irish Residential Property REIT (IRPR) last year raised 200 million euros on the Irish stock exchange, while Green REIT and Hibernia REIT have raised funds to invest in Irish commercial property. (Additional reporting by Sinead Cruise; Editing by Greg Mahlich)