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Cairn Homes PLC on Wednesday raised operating profit guidance despite a mixed first half that saw sales and pretax profit fall but margins improve. Shares in the Dublin-based housebuilder were down 3.0% to 180.68 pence each in London on Wednesday morning, having initially risen to 192.40p. The stock is up 10% over the past 12 months. The company said pretax profit fell 32% to €37.0 million in the six months ended June from €54.4 million a year before. Revenue declined 22% to €284.5 million from €366.1 million, while administrative expenses climbed 7.9% to €20.5 million from €19.0 million. Average selling prices edged down to €387,000 from €388,000, but gross margin edged up to 22.2% from 22.0%. The closed and forward order book grew to 4,092 units as at September 2 from 3,450 a year ago and to €1.54 billion in value from €1.32 billion. Cairn Homes said its strategy of ‘significant investment’ in construction activities and operational scaling is ‘clearly delivering’, with ‘exceptionally’ strong sales in the first half, notably from first time buyers, driving growth in the closed and forward order book. ‘This underpins our expected H2 delivery and another year of growth in revenue and profitability, supporting our upgraded FY25 guidance and new FY26 guidance provided today,’ the company said. Cairn Homes sets its full-year revenue guidance at around €945 million, up 9.9% from €859.9 million in 2024, and compared to its prior forecast for growth in excess of 10%. Operating profit is estimated between around €160 million and €165 million, upgraded from its initial €160 million guidance. Return on equity for 2025 is still expected to be around 15.5%. For 2026, revenue is estimated between around €1.02 billion and €1.05 billion, operating profit is put between roughly €175 million and €180 million, while return on equity is estimated at around 16.0%. Analysts at Davy Research put 2026 consensus for revenue at €998.4 million, operating profit at €171.3 million, and return on equity at 16.0%. Cairn Homes declared an interim dividend of 4.1 pence per share, up 7.9% on-year from 3.8p. Copyright 2025 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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