23rd Feb 2016 07:19
LONDON (Alliance News) - Persimmon PLC on Tuesday said its pretax profit surged in 2015 following a very strong year for the UK housebuilding industry, with revenue up and operating margins improving as it sold more houses at higher prices.
The FTSE 100-listed group said its pretax profit for the year to the end of December was GBP637.8 million, up from GBP475.0 million a year earlier, as its total revenue for the year increased to GBP2.9 billion from GBP2.6 billion.
The company sold 14,572 homes in 2015, up 8.0% from 13,509 in 2014, and sold those homes for an average of GBP199,127, up from GBP190,533. Its operating margin for the year improved to 21.9%, up from 18.4%, thanks to the higher prices, and this accelerated further in the second half, hitting 23%.
Persimmon's forward sales position at the end of the year was GBP1.68 billion, up from GBP1.49 billion a year earlier.
Persimmon also said it will further accelerated its capital return programme thanks to the strong performance of the business and will now return 110.0 pence per share in cash to shareholders by the start of April, a massive rise on the 10.0p it had been intending to return under its original plans.
The total value of its capital return programme has been increased to GBP2.76 billion, up from the GBP1.90 billion it had outlined back in 2012.
"Persimmon delivered an outstanding performance in 2015, supported by improving customer sentiment and a mortgage market which is responding to customer demand," said Chairman Nicholas Wrigley.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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