3rd Aug 2005 07:00
Bellway PLC03 August 2005 Trading Update For the Period Ending 31 July 2005 Wednesday 3 August 2005 Bellway is issuing the following Trading Update ahead of its preliminary resultsfor the year ended 31 July 2005 which will be announced on Tuesday 18 October2005. We are pleased to confirm that we will deliver record full year resultsfor 2005 in line with market expectations. Legal completions for the year were a new record at 7,001 homes, this is some 6%ahead of last year and shows an increase in output in both private and socialhomes. The overall average selling price achieved was circa £165,000 compared to£161,400 last year, still one of the lowest in the industry. This performancehas been achieved against the backdrop of a less robust market place and is ourfourteenth year of organic volume growth. The Group's policy of forward selling as far as possible continues to besuccessful and the order book currently stands at £513 million compared to lastyear's exceptional level of £587 million. Since the summer of 2004, sellingincentives have been more widely used to encourage hesitant home buyers tocommit to a purchase. Our operating margin for 2004/5 will be similar to theprior year's 19.5%, however, if the level of selling incentives increasesfurther, this margin will come under pressure in the current year. The Group is currently selling from circa 10% more outlets compared to this timelast year and this combined with our low average selling price encourages theGroup as it aims for another year of increased volume. This growth however isultimately dependent on the traditional uplift in sales activity in the Autumnand next Spring and would be further supported if interest rates were to fall. Bellway has continued to invest in land to support our long term plans fororganic growth. Our land bank with planning permission at 31 July is circa21,500 plots compared to 20,700 at the same time last year. In addition, we haveincreased our involvement in regeneration schemes, having been recentlynominated the contracted partner for projects in South Tyneside and NorthSolihull and preferred partner at Meden Valley. Our focus on the middle market has been reinforced by this growing urbanregeneration portfolio and should ensure that we are well positioned to continueto grow in the future. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT ALISTAIR LEITCH, FINANCE DIRECTOR ON0191 217 0717 OR 07855 337001 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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