Highlights
- Record first half year home completions with 9,077 total completions3, up 9.2%
- Recovery in adjusted operating margin to 20.3% (2019: 19.4%, H2 FY20: 5.9%) mainly driven by growth in completions, delivering adjusted profit before tax of Ā£507.2m (2019: Ā£440.8m). After adjusted items of Ā£77.0m (2019: Ā£17.8m), profit before tax was Ā£430.2m (2019: Ā£423.0m)
- Continued strong cash generation with period end net cash of Ā£1,106.7m (2019: Ā£433.8m) and land creditors reduced to Ā£601.1m (2019: Ā£830.8m) (21.2%; 2019: 27.4% of land bank) further strengthening our balance sheet
- Continued progress in maintaining our position as the leading national sustainable housebuilder; the only housebuilder to deliver improved annual CDP scores across all three categories this year (Forest, Water and Climate)
- Launched The Barratt Charitable Foundation to further support the communities in which we operate
Dividend resumed
- Following careful consideration, the Board has decided to resume dividend payments with an interim dividend of 7.5 pence per share and continues to target a full year dividend cover of 2.5 times
Current trading
- Net private reservations per active outlet per average week for January were 0.77, 7.2% below the equivalent period in 2020 (0.83) but 4.1% ahead of the equivalent reservation rate in 2019 of 0.74
- Strong total forward sales3Ā as at 31 January 2021 of 14,289 homes (3 February 2020: 13,043 homes) at a value of Ā£3,425.8m (3 February 2020: Ā£3,027.1m) with 11,588 homes secured for completion beyond 31 March 2021
- Outlook for the full year remains in line with the Boardās expectations with wholly owned completions expected to be between 15,250 and 15,750 homes with around 650 further joint venture home completions in FY21
Commenting on the results David Thomas, Chief Executive of Barratt Developments PLC, said: “Our first priority remains keeping our colleagues and customers safe. Our customers are at the heart of everything we do and I would like to say a huge thank you to all of our employees and sub-contractors who have continued to deliver great quality homes and excellent customer service throughout these challenging times. We have achieved a fantastic first half performance, with a strong rebound in completion volumes and good progress towards our medium term targets.
We have also made a solid start to the second half and are now over 95% forward sold for our financial year. Whilst we are mindful of the continued economic uncertainties, the housing market fundamentals remain attractive and our outlook for the full year remains in line with expectations. We will continue to lead the industry in quality and service as we deliver the high quality sustainable homes and developments the country needs, creating jobs and supporting the economic recovery across England, Scotland and Walesā.
Note on forward looking statements
Certain statements in this document may be forward looking statements. By their nature, forward looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties or assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by those statements. Forward looking statements regarding past trends or activities should not be taken as a representation that such trends or activities will continue in the future. Accordingly undue reliance should not be placed on forward looking statements.
This announcement contains inside information. The person responsible for arranging for the release of this announcement on behalf of Barratt Developments PLC is John Messenger (Group Investor Relations Director).
There will be an analyst conference call and webcast at 8.30am today.
Dial in UK toll free: 0808 109 0700
International dial in: +44 (0) 203 003 2666
The presentation will also be webcast live with the follow on Q&A. Please register and access the webcast using the following link:
https://webcast.merchantcantoscdn.com/webcaster/dyn/4000/7464/16532/125087/Lobby/default.htm
An archived version of the webcast will also be available on our website during the afternoon of 4 February 2021.
Further copies of this announcement can be downloaded from the Barratt Developments PLC corporate website atĀ www.barrattdevelopments.co.ukĀ or by request from the Company Secretary’s office at: Barratt Developments PLC, Barratt House, Cartwright Way, Forest Business Park, Bardon Hill, Coalville, Leicestershire, LE67 1UF.
1 Refer to Glossary for definition of key financial metrics
2 Unless otherwise stated, all numbers quoted exclude JVs
3 Including JVs in which the Group has an interest
4 In addition to the Group using a variety of statutory performance measures it also measures performance using alternative performance measures (APMs). Definitions of APMs and reconciliations to the equivalent statutory measures are detailed in the Glossary and Definitions. Net cash definition in Note 5.1
