19th Jan 2022 10:25
(Alliance News) - Crest Nicholson Holdings PLC on Wednesday said it swung to full-year profit, as the housebuilder's revenue was boosted by a strong UK housing market.
In the year ended October 31, the Surrey, England-based firm swung to a pretax profit of GBP86.9 million, from a GBP13.5 million loss.
The company put this down to a stronger trading performance and an ongoing focus on tightly controlling costs.
The cost of exceptional items net of income tax decreased 66% to GBP16.4 million from GBP48.1 million the year prior.
The housebuilder's revenue grew 16% to GBP786.6 million from GBP677.9 million. Crest Nicholson credited this to a strong UK housing market and robust trading across all divisions.
The UK government's "strong encouragement" for housebuilders to stay open for business despite Covid-19 also helped, Crest Nicholson said. This included the extension of the temporary reduction in stamp duty land tax that supported changing confidence levels.
Crest Nicholson resumed its final dividend and proposed 9.5 pence per share, bringing its total dividend payout for the year to 13.6p per share. It had not paid a dividend in the previous financial year.
Going forward, the firm plans to further enhance its profit through both margin rate accretion and volume growth.
"It was a clear objective of the new leadership team to restore Crest Nicholson to being one of the UK's leading housebuilders. That challenge was undoubtedly heightened by the arrival of the pandemic. However, we can say with confidence that we have delivered the turnaround that we wanted," Chief Executive Peter Truscott commented.
He added: "Our operating platform is now efficient and scalable, our balance sheet is transformed and equips us with the resources to grow the group's footprint in the UK and we have assembled an experienced leadership team to drive the group forward. A strong improvement in financial performance has followed which also reflects the ongoing underlying strength of the market."
Shares in Crest Nicholson were up 4.0% at 353.30 pence each on Wednesday morning in London.
By Abby Amoakuh; [email protected]
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