Countryside posts profit increase

Download this episode (right click and save) Countryside has posted an increase in adjusted operating profit of 26% to £122.5m in its first year of trading as a listed company and a 12% increase in completions to 2,657 homes.    It returned a dividend to investors of 3.4p per share for the year to 30 September. Group chief executive Ian Sutcliffe said the housebuilder was seeing strong growth through its partnerships business, as well as benefiting from strong growth in areas of outer London. Partnerships account for 70% of Countryside’s completions, meaning a considerable amount of development is done with public sector partners who offset development risk. Private sale accounted for just 42% of its completions, with the rest being spread across PRS and other affordable tenures, allowing it to spread more risk. Countryside said it had 6,623 plots with preferred bidder status compared to 2,957 a year earlier, while it was working on a potential bid pipeline of 33,515 plots. FY 2016 FY 2015 Change Completions 2,657 2,364 12% Adjusted revenue £777m £615.8m 26% Adjusted operating profit £122.5m £91.2m 34% Adjusted operating margin 15.8% 14.8% +100bps Adjusted basic earnings per share 16.3p 5.5p 196% Return on capital employed 26.8% 24.7% +210bps Net cash/(debt) £12m £59.5m  – Reported revenue £671.3m £547.5m 23% Reported operating profit £87.3m £67.9m 29% Basic earnings per share 13.6p 4.4p 209% Dividend per share 3.4p – • To send feedback, e-mail alex.peace@estatesgazette.com or tweet @egalexpeace or @estatesgazette