Lovell and Mansell call off merger

LOVELL HOLDINGS and Mansell, the social housing construction companies, yesterday announced that their planned merger had been scrapped due to the collapse of stock market confidence in small-cap companies.

David Heppell, chief executive of Lovell, said he was "very disappointed that the market conditions have intervened to such an extent that the transaction is no longer viable." Lovell's shares, which had been relisted, fell 20 per cent to 10p.