The head of corporate finance at ABN AMRO, Christopher Hill, has confirmed that the sale of Fairclough Homes is imminent. Speaking at Housebuilder's Housing Market Intelligence conference he said: "We are going to find out shortly who the buyer for Fairclough is." Hill said this would be part of a wave of aquisitions across the industry. "The stock market has rewarded those companies that acquire. Over time the market will consolidate to leave five major players with several fleet footed smaller ones." Hill also said that housebuilders were much better prepared to deal with the current downturn in the market, and this would prevent a crash. "We believe companies are generally very well prepared for the downturn. There is a belief in the competence of management and there ability to avoid the problems seen in the last downturn," said Hill.