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The Berkeley Group Holdings plc is a British property developer based in Cobham, Surrey. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. ==History== The Company was founded by Tony Pidgley〔(Father, son square up for Berkeley Battle ), ''The Telegraph'', 18 February 2003〕 and Jim Farrer in Weybridge in 1976 as Berkeley Homes, a name borne by regional subsidiaries. Pidgley (the dominant partner) and Farrer had previously run the housing division of Crest Homes and it was their aim to focus on executive housing on single plots or small sites.〔Company Prospectus〕 Over the next few years, Berkeley expanded across the home counties and while building less than 100 houses a year, it floated its shares on the Unlisted Securities Market in 1984.〔 After the flotation, Berkeley expanded geographically to the west, the south midlands and East Anglia; it also formed a joint venture, St George, to build in central London. By 1988, Berkeley was building over 600 executive homes a year. By then Pidgley was aware of the overheating in the housing market and sold houses aggressively to realise cash. For two years the company did no more than break even but its cash position was strong and in 1991 it was able to purchase the Manchester-based Crosby Homes〔Rights issue and Crosby offer document 1991〕 and the outstanding 50 per cent of St George; Berkeley began buying large development sites at depressed prices. The 1990s was the decade in which Berkeley moved its operational orientation to major urban regeneration sites in London, Birmingham, Manchester and other northern cities.〔Wellings, Fred: Dictionary of British Housebuilders (2006) Troubador. ISBN 978-0-9552965-0-5〕 In the early 2000s, Berkeley refined its strategy to concentrate primarily on relatively large scale urban redevelopments in the London area. In 2003 it announced the deferred sale of Crosby Homes. The reduction in scale was intended to generate surplus cash and 2004 saw a scheme of arrangement to return £1.45m to shareholders.〔 In April 2014 the Group won the Queen's Award for Sustainable Development for a second year.〔("Berkeley wins Queen's Award for sustainable development" ) 21 April 2014. Berkeley Group. Retrieved 2014-05-14.〕 In 2012, the Berkeley Group sustained 16,000 jobs and generated £2.6 billion of economic activity in Britain. At the time of the award the company had collected a 98% customer satisfaction rate in its data for the previous 12 months. Current releases of new builds are described on its website.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=New Homes & Property Development - Designed for Life - Berkeley Group )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Berkeley Group Holdings」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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