Housebuilder declares £175m dividend after record profits
Barratt Developments has built on strong fundamentals to achieve record profits in the first half of its financial year.
The FTSE 100 group, which includes David Wilson Homes and Wilson Bowden Developments, is confident about the future.
It has declares a second special dividend and will pay out £175m in November 2019 as well as the same amount, which had already been announced, this November. It also bumped up its interim dividend from 7.3p to 8.6p.
Barratt expects that, for the five years to November 2019, total dividend payments will reach £1.9bn.
Barratt Developments chief executive David Thomas
A 7% increase on last year saw pre-tax profits reach £342.7m, while revenues climbed 9% to within touching distance of £2bn.
Barratt, which is the UK’s largest housebuilder, delivered an average of 280 completions a week for the six months to December.
Thomas added: “The group has delivered a strong operational and financial performance in the first half, including an increase in completion volumes and a record first half profit before tax. There is high demand for new housing across the country, supported by attractive market fundamentals.”
It is supporting this opportunity with the opening of a new division in Cambridgeshire, which will be creating around 50 jobs over the next three years.
