California-based Watt Residential Partners, which has a Utah division in Salt Lake City, is merging with John Laing Homes to form one of the top 25 builders in the United States, the companies announced.
The merger will create a company that is expected to have revenues of $400 million and should build more than 2,000 homes in 1998. Financial details of the deal were not released.Watt and Britain-based Laing will take on the name of WL Homes LLC after the merger, and the separate identities of both companies will be retained in their current markets. WL Homes' headquarters will be in Irvine, Calif.
"The match between John Laing Homes and Watt Homes is a good one," said Bill Richardson, president of Watt Homes' Utah division. "We now have the combined resources to increase the number of quality homes we build in our market."
The local division builds primarily single-family subdivisions and homes. Its major markets are Stansbury Park, Grantsville, Syracuse, Summit County, Utah County and Herriman.
As of late last year, the Utah division had 29 employees and annual sales of about $37 million.
Ray Watt, founder of Watt Homes, will serve on the new company's six-member board of directors. H. Lawrence Webb, president of John Laing Homes' California division, was named CEO of WL Homes.
WL Homes will have eight divisions with offices in California, Utah, Hawaii, Colorado, Virginia and Nevada. A majority of the company's homebuilding activity - representing up to 50 percent of revenue - will occur in the Southern California market.