Dallas-based Centex Corp. has announced the sale of Fairclough Homes, its United Kingdom home building operations, to The Miller Group, the UK's largest privately-owned housing, property development and construction company. Although terms were not disclosed, Centex estimates that net proceeds of the sale, after projected foreign and domestic taxes, will be approximately $290 million.

The transaction is consistent with the company's strategic plan to focus on its domestic home building operations, which recorded operating earnings growth of 43 percent in its last fiscal year. Substantially all the proceeds from the Fairclough transaction will be used for share repurchases.

"We are committed to returning value to our shareholders through these repurchases. At the same time, our operations are performing very well and we intend to continue to invest the resulting strong operating cash flows into highly attractive opportunities in domestic home building," said Tim Eller, chairperson and chief executive officer of Centex Corporation.

Centex said that its Board of Directors has increased the company's share repurchase authorization to an aggregate of five million shares. There is no specific timetable for the repurchase of shares. Centex is not changing its fiscal 2006 earnings per share guidance of $9.10 to $9.35 as a result of this transaction.

The company has also announced it is exploring strategic alternatives regarding its sub-prime home equity lending group, Centex Home Equity Company LLC (CHEC). The alternatives being considered include a possible sale of CHEC. This is consistent with Centex's strategic intentions to focus on home building and related businesses. The company has retained Goldman, Sachs & Co. to assist in this effort. There can be no assurance that this initiative will result in a CHEC transaction.

"CHEC has been a growing and profitable part of Centex since 1997," Eller said. "It has an excellent servicing portfolio and a strong franchise value. However, we believe CHEC may have better opportunities for accelerated growth in a different capital allocation environment."

For the fiscal year ending March 31, 2005, CHEC reported revenues of $685.5 million, a 30-percent improvement over the previous fiscal year. Operating earnings were $108.4 million, a 68-percent increase compared with operating earnings of $64.5 million in fiscal year 2004.