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Persimmon has grown its pre-tax profit for the first half of 2018 by 13%, with revenue and operating margin also both rising.
The volume house builder posted a profit before tax of £516.3m for the six months to June 2018 on the back of a 5% uptick in group revenue from £1.75bn to £1.84bn.
As reported in a trading update last month, Persimmon increased the number of new homes sold by 3.6%, from 7,794 to 8,072. The average selling price was up slightly from £213,262 to £215,813.
The half-year results come after Persimmon reported a 25% profit rise on its full-year accounts for 2017, when the group made a profit of £977.1m on the back of revenue of £3.4bn.
The half-year update also revealed operating margin on its housebuilding activity was up to 29.7%, from 27.6% in the same period in 2017.
The highly profitable company returned £388.5m to shareholders in March, meaning it has now paid £2.2bn in dividends since 2012, when it launched a strategy to return capital to shareholders.
Speaking about the half-year results, Jeff Fairburn, chief executive at Persimmon, said: “These strong results reflect the continued successful delivery of the group’s long-term strategy and our commitment to meeting customer demand in each of our 30 regional markets across the UK.
“We have continued to experience good levels of customer interest in our housing development sites as we trade through the quieter summer season. Customers are continuing to benefit from a competitive mortgage market and confidence remains resilient based on healthy employment trends and low interest rates. Our forward sales are 6% ahead of last year at £2.12bn which places the group in a strong position for the second half of the year.”