Persimmon PLC Trading Update (2733B)
09 January 2018 - 6:00PM
UK Regulatory
TIDMPSN
RNS Number : 2733B
Persimmon PLC
09 January 2018
TRADING UPDATE - 9 JANUARY 2018
Persimmon plc announces the following update ahead of its Final
Results for the year ended 31 December 2017, which will be released
on 27 February 2018.
Revenues for 2017 of GBP3.42bn were 9% higher than the prior
year (2016: GBP3.14bn) with legal completion volumes strongly ahead
by 872 new homes (6% increase) to 16,043 (2016: 15,171). The
Group's average selling price increased by 3% to c. GBP213,300
(2016: GBP206,765).
Since the launch of our Group strategy in 2012 we have made a
significant contribution to increasing UK housing supply by opening
1,189 new selling outlets and delivering 80,726 new homes to the
market during which time we have increased our annual production by
over 70%.
We continued to experience healthy customer demand for new homes
through the autumn sales season and the value of our forward sales
at 31 December 2017 of c. GBP1,355m was 10% ahead of the prior year
(2016: GBP1,234m). Second half legal completion volumes of 8,249
were 455 stronger than for the first half of the year (H1: 7,794),
an increase of 6%.
We anticipate our pre-tax profits for the year will be modestly
ahead of market consensus.
The Group continues to pursue disciplined high-quality growth in
its regional markets in support of the Government's desire to
increase housing supply across the UK. We opened a new operating
business in Mansfield, north of Nottingham, on 2 January 2017 which
has made good progress, legally completing 373 new homes in 2017.
In addition, on 2 January 2018, we launched a new business based
near Ipswich in Suffolk to improve our operational capability and
supplement our existing operations in the east of England. Over the
last three years we have opened 6 new offices, raising the number
of regional house building businesses within the Group from 24 to
30 demonstrating our commitment to increasing supply where there is
good demand and we will continue to explore opportunities for
further growth.
The Group successfully opened 197 new sales outlets during the
year and is building on all sites which have an implementable
planning consent. The Group now has 375 active sales outlets which
we anticipate will provide good support to sales moving into the
2018 spring selling season.
We have made excellent progress in expanding our manufacturing
capabilities to support our desire to achieve sustainable growth.
Our new brick manufacturing plant in Harworth, near Doncaster, is
now complete and deliveries of bricks to site have commenced,
underpinning our ability to increase house building volumes. The
Group's Space4 insulated frame build-system is also an important
contributor to our overall construction capacity and we anticipate
further investment in expanding this capability over the coming
years.
We continue to invest for future growth and have acquired c.
17,300 plots of new land at excellent margins in over 80 locations
throughout the UK during the year. We remain mindful of market
risks including those associated with the uncertainty arising from
the UK leaving the EU. However, we are keen to deliver further
improvement in our housing output and remain ready to invest
wherever the local planning environment is supportive.
The Group continues to perform strongly in generating free cash
and held cash balances of c. GBP1,300m at 31 December 2017 (2016:
GBP913m).
We will provide further details and give an update on our
assessment of the housing market over the early weeks of 2018 when
we announce our results for the year ended 31 December 2017 on
Tuesday 27 February 2018.
Please Note
There will be a call for analysts at 09.00 GMT today. Please use
the dial-in details below:
Telephone +44 (0)33
number: 3300 0804
Access pin: 81885462#
Passcode: Persimmon
An audiocast of the call will be available on
www.corporate.persimmonhomes.com
For further information please contact:
Jeff Fairburn, Group Chief Simon Rigby
Executive
Mike Killoran, Group Finance Kevin Smith
Director
Jos Bieneman
Persimmon plc Citigate Dewe Rogerson
Tel: +44 (0) 1904 642199 Tel: +44 (0) 20 7638
9571
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
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