Hedge Funds Bet on a UK Housing Giant. Its Shares Fell

For a group of activist US hedge funds, Greg Fitzgerald was the man to reinvent UK homebuilding.

The boss of Vistry Group Plc was implementing a new strategy that would see the homebuilder abandon private sales in favor of partnership deals that involve building affordable homes to order. If it succeeded, it would have made him one of the best paid executives in the industry.