30th Nov 2021 09:48
(Alliance News) - Countryside Properties PLC on Tuesday reported a return to profit, marking a partially recovery from a period crippled by the Covid-19 pandemic but accompanied by expectations of a further profit increase in the current financial year.
Shares in the Brentwood, Essex-housebuilder were down 4.7% at 419.00 pence on Tuesday in London.
For the financial year that ended September 30, Countryside posted pretax profit of GBP85.4 million, swinging from a loss of GBP1.9 million the year before; however this was still lower compared to the GBP203.6 million in profit reported for the 2019 financial year.
The return to profit was driven by a 54% increase in revenue year-on-year to GBP1.37 billion from GBP892.0 million, as house completions rose 33% to 5,385 from 4,053 as homes deferred during the virus year were completed.
What's more, the average private selling price rose 4.4% to GBP380,000 from GBP364,000. The average number of sales outlets dipped to 60 from 63, while the net reservation rate per outlet per week was 0.74, down from 0.78.
Countryside's total forward order book at the end of September was GBP1.53 billion, up 7.0% from GBP1.43 billion the prior year.
Countryside declared no dividend for the year, citing "excellent opportunities" for investment in its Partnerships business.
Looking ahead, the company said it continued to see strong demand across the board, in spite of supply side constraints continuing to create inflationary pressure. For the year ending September 30, 2022, Countryside expects adjusted operating profit between GBP200 million and GBP210 million, marking a 20% to 26% increase from GBP167.3 million.
"Countryside is uniquely positioned to fulfil the considerable demand for homes in mixed-tenure developments and we believe that this represents a multi-year growth opportunity. We have made significant investments to align our resources - both capital and people - with this market opportunity and we believe that this will generate attractive returns for our shareholders in a sustainable, low-risk way," said Chair John Martin.
By Dayo Laniyan; [email protected]
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