Guangzhou-based Evergrande Group is reported to have been in discussions with Cala for several months, although the Edinburgh headquartered house builder declined to comment about the approach.

Legal & General and Patron Capital, a specialist real estate investor, took control of Cala in 2013 in a deal valuing the house builder at £210m.

Since then profits have grown strongly and city analysts have speculated that the group could be worth as much as £600m.

Cala is in a major expansion push to reach £1bn turnover in just five years. In the year to July 2016, its posted record pre-tax profit up 18% to £60m from revenue of £587m after completing 1,150 homes.

At the time it estimated its contracted landbank to have a gross development value of £4.7bn.

Evergrande has been aggressively investing in companies as it looks to lift some of the pressure of having run up $57bn in debt, almost six times its market value, on land acquisitions and corporate mergers.