6th Feb 2019 08:29
LONDON (Alliance News) - Redrow Group PLC on Wednesday proposed a GBP111 million cash return to shareholders, additional to its normal dividend, as the UK housebuilder reported a strong performance for the first six months of its financial year.
For the six months to the end of December, Redrow reported a record pretax profit of GBP185 million, up 5.0% from GBP176 million the year before, on revenue which grew by 9.0% to GBP970 million from GBP890 million.
This is due to an increase in legal completions, which rose by 12% to 2,970 units from 2,646 units the prior year.
Also, the average selling price for Redrow's private homes rose by 4% to GBP391,000 from GBP375,000, and the price of affordable homes by 15% to GBP141,000 from GBP123,000 due to the growth of the group's Southern businesses.
In the interim period, the value of private reservations remained in line with the prior year at GBP795 million; however its total order book rose 11% to GBP1.16 billion from GBP1.05 billion.
Redrow declared an interim dividend of 10.0 pence per share, up 11% from 9.0p the year before.
In addition, the company proposed a 30 pence per share cash return from a B share scheme worth GBP111 million.
Looking ahead, for the first few weeks of calendar 2019, private sales totalled GBP156 million, down from GBP166 million for the same period a year prior, due to economic and political uncertainty.
"The market during the run up to the festive period and the first two weeks of 2019 was subdued by macroeconomic and political uncertainty. However, sales over the last three weeks have bounced-back with reservations running at similar levels to last year's strong market activity," said Chairman Steve Morgan.
"Nevertheless given our record GBP1.2 billion order book, our strategy remains on track giving me every confidence that this will be another year of significant progress for Redrow," Morgan added.
Shares in Redrow were up 1.1% at 598.32 pence on Wednesday.
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