Final Results
Financial highlights
· Group revenue increased 26% to £604.8m driven by a 15% growth in legal completions and an 11.8% increase in Average Selling Price to £212,300 (due to mix)
· Gross margins rose to 18.8% from 17.3% at June 2012
· Pre-tax profit up 63% to £70m and adjusted earnings per share up 45% to 15.7p
· Value of private reservations up 42% from £472m to £668m
· Help to Buy made a significant contribution to forward sales, but just 3% to private completions
· Return on Capital Employed of 12.2% (2012: 8.7%)
· Net debt increased to £91m vs £14m in 2012, due to our ongoing investment in land and work in progress. We expect net debt to increase further in line with our ongoing investment in inventory
· On the basis of these strong results, the Board is proposing the reinstatement of a final dividend of 1p per share
Operational highlights
· Legal completions rose 15% to 2,827 (2012: 2,458)
· The Heritage Collection now firmly established as primary brand and represented 85% of private turnover during the year (2012: 67%)
· Opening of new outlets remains a priority. In the year to 30 June 2013 our outlets increased from 82 to 92.
· A significant increase in output is anticipated during the current year, with a number of new sites either commenced or in the pipeline
· The owned and contracted land bank at the end of June 2013 was 14,162 plots
(June 2012: 12,350 plots)
· Private reservations per outlet per week in the current year to date are 40% ahead at
0.77 (vs 0.55)