10th Feb 2015 07:45
LONDON (Alliance News) - Bellway PLC on Tuesday posted robust housing sales and forward sales for the first half and said it is confident on its full-year prospects.
The FTSE 250-listed housebuilder said its housing completions in the first half of its financial year to the end of January rose to 3,754 from 3,245 in the comparable period a year earlier. Its average selling price in the period was up around 3% to GBP219,000 from GBP212,071 last year, with the average selling price of private homes up by around 7% to GBP240,000.
The group said that though the pricing environment is still strong, there has been a moderation of price growth, particularly in and around London, meaning only modest improvements in prices were seen at certain sites.
Its forward order book is at GBP975 million at the end of January, up 25% on the GBP783 million reported at the same time in 2014.
Bellway expects its operating margin for the first half to be around 20%, a significant improvement on the 15.6% reported for the first half of the year before.
The company spent GBP355 million on land and land creditors in the half, up from GBP240 million the year before, and plans to open a 16th operating division in the current financial year to the end of July.
"The group's strategy of delivering volume growth, with a strong focus on return on capital employed has resulted in a further significant rise in profitability. With advanced plans to open a sixteenth division in the second half of the financial year, Bellway is well positioned to deliver further earnings growth," said Ted Ayres, Chief Exeuctive of Bellway.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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