Centex just announced a $352 million impairment charge for the quarter ended March 31, 2009. This reduces Centex’s book value from $1.32 billion to $918million. Based on an equity value at offer of $1.305 billion, the purchase multiple of book value rose from 1.0x to 1.4x. This represents a very full price in the current market. That said, as long as the reduction in net worth does not adversely impact Pulte’s debt covenants, and it should not because the merger dramatically reduces the Centex/Pulte banks’ combined exposure, it helps to improve future Pulte margins by reducing land costs. Regardless of the charge offs, it is not likely that another homebuilding transaction will have a similar multiple any time soon.
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