House builder Bellway PLC (LON:BWY) set new record in terms of units sold and operating margin achieved in the year just ended.
The group saw a 12.5% increase in the number of housing completions in the year to the end of July, with completions totalling 8,721 versus 7,752 the year before.
Excluding exceptional items, the operating margin is expected to rise by 1.5 percentage points to just under 22% once the final book-keeping has been done.
Housing revenue rose by around 27% to £2.2bn from £1.74bn the previous year.
The elephant in the room – albeit not in any of the rooms Bellway has built – however, is the likely effect of Brexit on the housing market, but chief executive Ted Ayres dodged the issue, saying it was too soon to assess the effect of the EU referendum result.
He did say, however, that trading in recent weeks has been “encouraging” and that Bellway’s strong balance sheet – it has net cash of £26mln – gave it the flexibility to respond opportunistically to any changes in market conditions.
“Overall, visitor numbers are still strong and the cancellation rate remains at a historic low,” Ayres revealed.