Q4 trading statement

Sovereign Network Group's Quarterly Performance Update covering unaudited Q4results for the financial year 2024/25

Sovereign Network Group (SNG)

Sovereign Network Group is the sixth largest housing association in the UK in terms of unit size with over 85,000 homes, with a core geographical focus in the South of England and London and an ambition to develop 25,000 homes over the next 10 years.

Quarter 4 Performance Update - period to 31 March 2025

Unaudited underlying financial performance in Q4 FY25 shows growth in sales turnover against the previous quarter. Both core lettings and sales turnover also increased year on year owing to additional income from more new homes and the rent uplift. The growth in turnover has outpaced inflationary increases in operating costs and changing market values of investments year on year, resulting in an increase in operating surplus. Year-on-year, operating surplus has increased by 42.9%. An increase in surplus on disposals in Q4 FY25 has contributed to a higher retained surplus against both the previous quarter and prior year.

Unaudited Financial Performance

Development

The development programme produced 721 handovers in the quarter. In total, for FY25 SNG delivered 1,611 new homes.

There are 11,369 units in the development pipeline as at the end of Q4, of which 7,536 are committed (including JV units).

Treasury

As at Q4 FY25, SNG had total long-term facilities of £4,694 million. £4,052 million of facilities were drawn, with £642m of available liquidity facilities and cash and cash equivalents of c. £80m.

In Q4, SNG established a £1.5bn Euro Medium Term Note ('EMTN') programme to support flexible access to capital markets.

There continues to be significant headroom against Interest Cover and Gearing covenants across all SNG facilities.

Credit ratings

SNG has an A3 (Outlook: Stable) rating with Moody's. 

SNG has an A- (Outlook: Stable) with S&P.

Customer Services

Q4 saw the launch of our new customer engagement framework, co-created with SNG customers across our operating geography, with our Customer Influence Panel (CIP) and Scrutiny Panel both meeting for the first time in January.

Two meetings in, our CIP has already commissioned a deep dive into anti-social behaviour, to establish if there are different levels of ASB between communities and, if so, why these differences exist. Whilst our Scrutiny Panel has commenced a scrutiny to understand why satisfaction scores from women are generally lower than those given by men.

The findings from these customer led activities will be used to identify actions SNG can take to improve service outcomes to customers.

Communities and Sustainability

In FY25, SNG has indicatively measured £140m of social value across Community Investment and the wider business. This included a pilot with HACT's new Built Environment Bank, where a portion of social value was calculated against the number of properties built in the West region. This year, SNG partnered with 424 community organisations, supported customers to achieve 382 jobs and 2,569 training outcomes, provided 4,206 fuel poverty interventions, 10,122 financial inclusion outcomes, 965 digital inclusion outcomes and our grants programmes have reached 17,461 beneficiaries.

Corporate Affairs 

The Government has kept housing at the forefront of its growth plans in one of the most active policy environments for the sector in many years. SNG continues to engage with government, wider policymakers and MPs - both directly and through our sector bodies to influence the Government's approach. The Group CEO and wider senior leadership continue to meet regularly with MPs, including ministers.

For more information, please contact: Anup Dholakia, Director of Treasury, Sovereign Network Group 07920205992 

Tim Taylor, Director of Communications and External Affairs, Sovereign Network Group

07795470472

Disclaimer The information contained herein (the "Trading Update") has been prepared by Sovereign Network Group (the "Parent") and its subsidiaries (the "Group"), including Sovereign Advances Ltd, Sovereign Housing Capital PLC (the "Issuers") and is for information purposes only.

The Trading Update should not be construed as an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities issued by the Parent, the Issuers or any other member of the Group, or any interest in any such securities, and nothing herein should be construed as a recommendation or advice to invest in any such securities.

Statements in the Trading Update, including those regarding possible or assumed future or other performance of the Group as a whole or any member of it, industry growth or other trend projections may constitute forward-looking statements and as such involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, performance or developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Accordingly, no assurance is given that such forward-looking statements will prove to have been correct. They speak only as at the date of the Trading Update and neither the Parent nor any other member of the Group undertakes any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future developments, occurrence of unanticipated events or otherwise.

None of the Parent, any member of the Group or anyone else is under any obligation to update or keep current the information contained in the Trading Update. The information in the Trading Update is subject to verification, does not purport to be comprehensive, is provided as at the date of the Trading Update and is subject to change without notice.

No reliance should be placed on the information or any projections, targets, estimates or forecasts and nothing in the Trading Update is or should be relied on as a promise or representation as to the future. No statement in the Trading Update is intended to be an estimate or forecast. No representation or warranty, express or implied, is given by or on behalf of the Parent, any other member of the Group or any of their respective directors, officers, employees, advisers, agents or any other persons as to the accuracy or validity of the information or opinions contained in the Trading Update (and whether any information has been omitted from the Trading Update). The Trading Update does not constitute legal, tax, accounting or investment advice.

www.sng.org.uk/working-with-us/investors

Note: Figures quoted in the update are based on unaudited management accounts which are subject to review and further adjustments, for example in the areas of pensions, investment property valuation and taxation.