Galliford Try will raise a net £119m from shareholders to double the size of its housebuilding business.

Greg Fitzgerald, chief executive, said the company would aim to buy land to boost its housing business and mitigate the impact of any downturn in the construction market.

'You can only transform a [housebuilding] business in a market like today,' he said. 'Construction is a late-cycle business but housing is early-cycle in a recession and is then one of the first out.'

Financial Times