陷入困境的伦敦上市住宅建筑商Vistry集团正在求助于王产署（The Crown Estate）的一位前高管，以帮助修复其受创的财务状况。
Vistry Group, the troubled London-listed housebuilder, is turning to a former executive at The Crown Estate to help repair its battered finances.
天空新闻获悉，Vistry在过去一年中股价暴跌近70%，目前正就任命罗伯特·艾伦（Robert Allen）为临时财务主管进行谈判。
Sky News has learnt that Vistry, which has seen its shares slump by close to 70% over the last year, is in talks to appoint Robert Allen as interim finance chief.
据行业消息人士透露，据信艾伦先生已经担任Vistry——这家常被称为工党最喜爱的住宅建筑商——的顾问数月，目前正被安排正式加入该公司。
Mr Allen is understood to have been acting as a consultant to Vistry - often described as Labour's favourite housebuilder - for several months, and is now being lined up to join the company formally, according to industry sources.
在两年前离开王产署之前，艾伦先生还曾在疫情期间倒闭的购物中心集团Intu以及英国大型住宅建筑商之一的Crest Nicholson担任过高级职务。
Prior to leaving The Crown Estate two years ago, Mr Allen also held senior jobs at Intu, the shopping centre group which collapsed during the pandemic, and Crest Nicholson, another of Britain's big housebuilders.
接近Vistry的人士本周末警告称，艾伦的任命尚未确定，仍有可能告吹。他们补充说，他无意长期担任公司的首席财务官。
People close to Vistry cautioned this weekend that Mr Allen's appointment was not yet certain and could fall apart. They added that he was not interested in becoming the company's chief financial officer on a permanent basis.
Vistry于6月宣布，此前担任该职务的蒂姆·劳勒（Tim Lawlor）将在协助首席执行官亚当·丹尼尔斯（Adam Daniels）发布半年业绩后于10月卸任。劳勒先生已于本月初离开公司。
Vistry announced in June that Tim Lawlor, who previously held the role, would step down in October after helping chief executive Adam Daniels deliver its half-year results. Mr Lawlor left the business earlier in the month.
如果艾伦先生被授予临时职务，这将在投资者中引发对更广泛招聘流程的质疑。
If Mr Allen is handed the role on an interim basis, it will raise questions among investors about the broader recruitment process.
丹尼尔斯在大约一个月前随半年业绩发布的一份声明中表示：“我高兴地宣布，我们预计将很快宣布任命一位高水平的新首席财务官，他将支持我推进我们的战略。”Vistry周六拒绝就其物色新财务主管一事发表评论。
In a statement accompanying its half-year results almost a month ago, Mr Daniels said he was "pleased to say that we expect to announce the appointment of a high-quality new CFO imminently who will support me with the delivery of our strategy". Vistry declined to comment on Saturday on its hunt for a new finance chief.
与许多主要的同业住宅建筑商一样，Vistry多年来通过一系列收购组建而成，其中包括2022年以13亿英镑合并Countryside。
Like many of its major housebuilding industry peers, Vistry has been constructed over many years through a patchwork of acquisitions, including the £1.3bn combination with Countryside in 2022.
然而，在成本飙升和英国住房市场艰难的背景下，其股价已经暴跌，导致Vistry如今的市值仅为7.63亿英镑。
However, its shares have crashed amid surging costs and a difficult UK housing market, leaving Vistry today with a market capitalisation of just £763m.
Vistry的大部分销售都是通过所谓的合伙模式进行的，其许多房屋都预售给了地方当局、住房协会和私人租房市场（PRS）供应商。
The majority of Vistry's sales are undertaken through a so-called partnership model, with many of its homes pre-sold to local authorities, housing associations and PRS providers.
这使其在白厅受到了包括住房大臣安杰拉·雷纳（Angela Rayner）在内的人士的推崇。
This led to it being championed in Whitehall by figures including Angela Rayner, the housing secretary.
其其余的新建住房库存则与竞争对手一样，通过其零售品牌Bovis Homes、Linden Homes和Countryside Homes出售给个人买家。
The remainder of its new housing stock is sold, like rivals, to individual purchasers through its retail brands Bovis Homes, Linden Homes and Countryside Homes.
伦敦金融城内有越来越多的人猜测，丹尼尔斯将不得不低头向股东请求通过紧急配股来筹集资金。
There has been growing speculation in the City that Mr Daniels would need to go cap in hand to shareholders to raise money through an emergency rights issue.
然而，他上个月似乎排除了这种可能性，并表示：“我们致力于以正确的姿态进入2027年，并在采取行动后，预计不需要筹集股权资金。”行业消息人士称，该公司一直在与房地产顾问第一太平戴维斯（Savills）合作，向竞争对手出售数十块土地，试图筹集数千万英镑。
He appeared to rule out that possibility last month, however, saying: "We are committed to entering 2027 on the right footing and following the actions taken, do not anticipate any need to raise equity." Industry sources said it had been working with Savills, the real estate advisor, on the sale of dozens of plots of land to rivals, in an attempt to raise tens of millions of pounds.
今年早些时候，据报道Vistry正在进行一轮裁员，以削减其4500人的员工队伍。
Earlier this year, it was reported that Vistry was undertaking a round of redundancies to trim its 4,500-strong workforce.
该公司还受到了内部预测错误频发以及更广泛宏观经济压力的打击。
The company has also been hit by a series of internal forecasting errors and wider macroeconomic pressures.
其许多主要竞争对手，包括Crest Nicholson，为了争取更多财务空间，被迫与贷款机构进行谈判。
A number of its major rivals, including Crest Nicholson, have been forced into negotiations with their lenders in a bid to buy themselves more financial headroom.
安迪·伯纳姆（Andy Burnham）在工党大会演讲中宣布了旨在刺激市场的政府支持新计划“你的第一个家”（Your First Home），在政府争相实现150万套新住房目标的背景下，被广泛认为对该行业呈积极态势。
Andy Burnham's announcement in his Labour Party conference speech of Your First Home, a new government-backed scheme to stimulate the market, was seen as broadly positive for the industry as the government scrambles to hit its 1.5 million new homes target.
然而，对于Vistry等公司而言，在这项新举措的具体运作细节由部长们阐明之前，其确切影响预计仍不明朗。
However, for companies such as Vistry, the precise impact of the new initiative is expected to remain unclear until ministers spell out how further detail of how it will operate.
丹尼尔斯上个月表示：“我们正在采取必要措施，确保我们在许多工地上看到的强劲表现在整个集团范围内得到复制。”
"We are taking the necessary steps to ensure the strong performance we have seen across many of our sites is replicated across the group as a whole," Mr Daniels said last month.
“要实现这一点，必须紧急聚焦于增强运营控制、释放现金、降低复杂性并奠定一个能够让我们更稳定地交付的基础。”
"Achieving this has necessitated an urgent focus on increasing operational control, releasing cash, reducing complexity and establishing a base from which we can deliver more consistently."