19th Apr 2016 07:03
LONDON (Alliance News) - McCarthy & Stone PLC said Tuesday it saw strong growth in the first half of its financial year, selling more houses at higher average prices, though its profit was hit slightly by costs from its initial public offering in November.
The retirement housebuilder reported GBP250.2 million in revenue for the six months ended February 29, 33% higher than the GBP188.5 million for the same period a year earlier, as legal completions grew by 19% and its average selling price rose 12%.
McCarthy & Stone said it made 923 legal completions for the first half of the current financial year, up from 776 a year earlier, whilst the average selling price was GBP253,000, from GBP226,000 a year earlier.
The company declared an interim dividend of 1.0 pence per share, in its first interim results since floating.
Despite this growth, pretax profit came in flat at GBP29.0 million, from GBP29.1 million a year earlier, largely due to increased administration costs coming from its initial public offering in November.
However, underlying operating profit showed a 10% increase to GBP40.2 million from GBP36.5 million, which McCarthy & Stone said came despite first half investment in new regional offices and additional operational infrastructure.
The company said its land bank now contains 10,800 lots, up from 9,460 at the end of its 2015 financial year in August. This means it has "sufficient land under control to deliver all targeted sales to 2019," McCarthy & Stone said.
McCarthy & Stone said it has seen a strong start to the second half of its year and pointed to its forward order book, which was GBP306.0 million at April 15, up 26% from GBP243.0 million at April 17, 2015.
As such, it reiterated its full year expectations of a 20% increase in sales volumes and guided towards a final dividend for the year of no less than 3.5p per share. This would give a full year dividend of no less than 4.5p per share.
"In the first half, we have put in place the regional infrastructure and management capability necessary to help deliver these sales, which gives us confidence in the progress we are making in achieving our strategic objective of building and selling more than 3,000 units per annum," said Chief Executive Clive Fenton.
By Hannah Boland; [email protected]; @Hannaheboland
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