Cairn Homes plc (LSE:CRN), the Irish housebuilder, doubled profits in the first half of the year and restarted its dividend programme, saying it has “never been better positioned”.
Its order book has grown to an all-time high of €655mln from €214mln in January as it prepared to hand over the keys to 2,550 family homes between this year and next.
The Dublin-headquartered outfit completed 403 sales in the first half of the year, compared to 207 in the same period last year, and contracted to sell 832 homes.
Although average selling prices fell to €324,000 from €337,000 a year ago, revenue rose 60% to €130.6mln.
Operating profit of €11.7mln was up from €5.8mln a year ago, while cash from operations surged 90% to €23.4mln.
The board declared an interim dividend of 2.66 euro cents per share to be paid on 8 October.
With gross profit margins continuing to improve, full year operating profit is now expected to be around €52mln, increasing to circa €85mln in 2022, with more than €165mln of operating cashflow expected to be generated between this year and next.
Chief executive Michael Stanley said: “Cairn has never been better positioned to play a leading role in the recovery of the housing market in Ireland.”
He added: “We welcome the suite of plans and initiatives in the government's Housing for All strategy. Cairn for its part will continue to provide a significant number of quality built new homes predominantly for prospective homeowners, but also for the rental market.”