A2Dominion Housing Group's Half Yearly Performance

A2Dominion Housing Group's Half Yearly Performance Update covering the period to 30 September 2021

A2Dominion Housing Group announces the following update for the period to 30 September 2021.

Financial Performance

The Group has produced a good result for the first six months of 2021/22 showing an improved performance compared to this time last year with a surplus in line with expectation.

Turnover has increased year on year which is largely a result of a higher housing for sale income totalling £44.5m compared to £16.1m over the same period in 2020 which was impacted by the effects of the pandemic. The Group's core rental income stream has increased by 2.0% year on year. The operating margin remains strong at 28.3% despite a slight decrease compared with the prior year.

Unaudited Consolidated Statement of Financial Position

The Group's fixed asset base has once again increased as we have continued to invest in our existing housing stock and develop new. Current assets have remained relatively steady year on year with creditors increasing marginally due to an increase in current liabilities. Total reserves show a decrease compared to the previous year primarily due to pension valuation movements in the year ended 31 March 2021 totalling £24.3m partially offset by a £15.8m movement in the fair value of hedged financial instruments. 

Operational Performance 

Customer: The Group has produced a good operational performance over the period maintaining a combined high level of customer satisfaction for repairs, and the customer service centre of 81.6% slightly below our 82.0% target with our customer effort score at 4.0 better than our target of being below 4.5. Average days for repairs at 15 days is on target and below that achieved last year. Social value delivered stands at £6.0m, well on the way to achieving the full year target of £8.0m. In line with last year, arrears levels have remained steady for the year to date across all tenures. This continues to reflect the focus on supporting and signposting customers to the help available to them to enable them to continue to manage their financial obligations.

Development: The Group's delivery from its development pipeline continues to be slower than anticipated following the pandemic closedown. This is largely due to the industry being slow to get back to full capacity in terms providing materials and a lack of labour on site. Despite this delay we have successfully handed over 580 homes to the end of September 2021 and are forecasting to deliver more homes in this financial year than the previous year. The current development pipeline totals 5,453 units.

Treasury: As at 30 September, the Group's loan facilities and borrowings are summarised as follows:

In addition to the £420.0m of undrawn facilities, the Group had £28.8m of cash.

The Group also has a deferred private placement of £75.0m from March 2022 which is not included within the £2,104.6m stated above.

Over the next two years, committed loan facilities will reduce by £166.0m (net) through scheduled loan facility amortisation and as a consequence of £150.0m retail bond maturity in October 2022. This has been partly refinanced through the deferred private placement issue of £75.0m in March 2022. The annual update of the Group's Euro Medium Term Note Programme documentation was completed in September, enabling the Group to maintain the option to issue further unsecured notes over the next 12 months.

As at 30 September 2021, the Group's overall fixed rate ratio was 90.3% (September 2020: 90.23%) and the average borrowing rate is 4.18% (September 2020: 4.17%).

Further Information

An Investor Update presentation is available on our website link: https://www.a2dominiongroup.co.uk/content/doclib/94.pdf