A group of Britain's biggest institutional investors are working on plans drawn up by bankers at UBS to provide direct funding to shore up the housebuilding sector, the Sunday Telegraph reported.
The report said bankers at UBS had drawn up possible plans for a wide-ranging placing by major shareholders in companies such as Taylor Wimpey and Barratt Developments.
Shares in house builders have been hammered in recent weeks over concerns about the bleak and uncertain market outlook. Shares in Taylor Wimpey have fallen 57 percent in the last three months and Barratt is down 78 percent over the same period.
The report said the plan for a placing followed requests from investors to the house builders to abandon any plans they may have to launch rights issues. No details of the possible size of the placing were given. The report said UBS usually advised both Taylor Wimpey and Barratt. It has proposed possible plans for a placing that could see big institutions such as Standard Life, Scottish Widows, Legal & General and M&G provide cash to refinance the housebuilders.