Growing Scottish house builder Springfield has bought Inverness-based Tulloch Homes for £56m.
Springfield has also announced plans to raise £22m through a share placing at a 4.4% discount to the share price to part finance the deal.
The takeover of the Highlands builder, which was itself bought through a management buy-out six years ago, is conditional on the successful fundraising, expected to be finalised on 21 December.
Innes Smith, CEO of Springfield, said: “This is another great acquisition for Springfield – and our third since coming to the market in 2017.
“Tulloch Homes has an excellent reputation for building high-quality homes in the Scottish Highlands in and around Invernessuy-out in 20.
He added: “This is an area of high demand where we have been organically building a presence in recent years.
“As a result, it will significantly strengthen our foothold in an area of strategic importance and accelerate our growth, being earnings enhancing from the current year.
“We welcome all of the Tulloch Homes employees to the Springfield group and we look forward to working together to continue to grow our business.”
In the last financial year to June, Tulloch sold 219 homes, generating a pre-tax profit of 6m from £46m revenue.
Tulloch Group has a land bank of 1,791 plots, of which 87% have planning permission.
The total gross development value is put at £375m, equivalent 7 years of development at current build rates.
In the year to September, Springfield sold 973 homes, lifting revenue by half to £217m, and generating a profit before tax of £18.5m.
