- Full-year profit forecast raised
- Earnings to be higher than FY24
- Shares top FTSE 100 gainers
Housebuilder Barratt Redrow (BTRW) pleased the market with its first-half trading update and its outlook for the full year, with profits seen ‘towards the upper end of expectations’.
The shares jumped as much as 41p or 9% to 478p taking them to the top of the FTSE 100 leader board.
‘SOLID DEMAND’
For the six months to December, the group posted a 23% increase in revenue to £2.28 billion and a 10.9% increase in completions to 6,846 units.
The net private reservation rate, a metric keenly watched by analysts as a sign of customer demand, rose 33% to 0.6 homes per outlet per week from 0.45 a year earlier.
The Redrow integration was said to be ‘progressing well’, with around £50 million of costs charged in the first half, but cost synergies are expected to be at least £100 million which is £10 million ahead of the original target.
Pre-tax profit for the first six months increased 23% to £117 million, while the interim dividend per share increased by 25% from 4.4p to 5.5p per share.
Chief executive David Thomas commented: ‘As the economic, political and lending environments have stabilised, there has been some recovery in customer demand and we have seen solid reservation activity since the start of January, building a strong forward sales position. As a result, we now expect our full year adjusted profit before tax will be towards the upper end of market expectations.’
The Bloomberg consensus for the year to June 2025 is for adjusted pre-tax profit of £542 million, with a range of £506 million to £588 million, against an aggregated figure of £578 million for the previous year.
