Bovis' new boss Fitzgerald buys £1.24m in shares

Greg Fitzgerald, Bovis’ newly-appointed chief executive, has signalled his confidence in the embattled housebuilder by buying 134,369 shares in the company for £1.24m.

Construction industry veteran Fitzgerald emerged from retirement earlier this month to head up the company, which recently saw off billion-pound takeover bids from Redrow and Galliford Try.

He began his new job last week on a basic annual salary of £650,000 and an annual bonus of up to 100% of salary payable in shares and deferred for three years.

At the time of the announcement of his appointment Fitzgerald said: “Bovis has a great brand, excellent people and a high quality land bank,” adding he looked forward to working with the management team to restore Bovis’ position as a leading housebuilder and deliver significantly improved returns to shareholders”.

Also buying shares in the company was non-executive director Ralph Findlay, who acquired 2,687 for just under £25,000.

Findlay was appointed a non-executive director at Bovis in April 2015 and combines his £54,000-a-year role with running Marstons, the Midlands-based brewer, as its chief executive.

The moves came after Bovis made its first two major appointments in Fitzgerald’s first week in the role.

James Dunne, previously an operations director at Barratt and David Wilson Homes, has been named Bovis’managing director of its Thames Valley region.

The Thames Valley region is part of the firm’s East division which is headed up by James Watson.

Watson is also in charge of the Southern region which also last week announced that Steve Jones, whose CV includes stints at Crest Nicholson, St James Homes and Bellway, had been appointed to head up that business.