Wednesday morning update: Here is the full story in this morning's Bee.
It's done. Two of the capital region's biggest home building companies - Pulte Homes and Centex Homes - won shareholder votes today to merge into the nation's largest builder - and one that will assume a powerful 17 percent market share in the six-county Sacramento area. Here is the company's
official news release on the merger this morning.
We're working up a full version of the story for Wednesday's paper, but here's an early look at what this entails. Locally, it means about 70 employees of each Sacramento division will merge into one entity likely to be headquartered in Roseville as Pulte Homes. Not everyone is going to be able to stay on the job. Sacramento-Reno Division President Chris Cady said in a telephone interview minutes ago that some duplicative office jobs will have to be elminated as part of the merger.
Cady has been division chief of Pulte's Sacramento-based operations for 13 years.
The new entity will be called Pulte Homes Inc. and trade under the ticker symbol of PHM. Regionally, it combines Centex's specialty in starter homes, Pulte's move-up specialty and Del Webb's active adult and retirement communities. Pulte reps say they will continue to use the Centex brand name.
Statewide, the two entities have about 500 employees. Its divisions will be headquartered in Sacramento, Pleasanton and Irvine.
Here's a by-the-numbers chart:
The three entities of the new Pulte Group - Pulte, Centex and Del Webb - collectively account for 16.9 percent of the capital region's 1,764 new-home sales the first half of 2009, reporting 299 sales. Top 10 homebuilder market share in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties, as it looked before the merger approved by Pulte andCentex shareholders Tuesday.
Builder Sales Market Share
KB Home 161 9.1%
Centex Homes 143 8.1%
Lennar 132 7.5%
JMC Homes 123 7.0%
Beazer Homes 112 6.3%
Taylor Morrison, Inc. 102 5.8%
Pulte Homes 89 5.0%
K. Hovnanaian 82 4.6%
Del Webb 67 3.8%
D.R. Horton 65 3.7%
Source: Hanley Wood Market Intelligence
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