Profits up as Persimmon surpasses £3bn revenue mark

Housebuilder Persimmon has seen revenues increase by 8%, surpassing the £3bn mark as it commits to returning a further £77m to shareholders.

In an eventful year to December 2016, in which the York company beat Brexit blues, it returned revenues of £3.14bn, up from £2.9bn the year before.

Profit before tax increased by 23% to £774.8m (2015: £629.5m)

It cemented a strong year for the group, particularly when rivals Bovis had been hit by a £7m bill to compensate customers in unfinished homes.

House completions increased by 599 new homes to 15,171 and the average house selling price increased by 3.8% to £206,765 (2015: £199,127)

It said it was encouraged by the “confident” market, with customer demand for new homes supported by compelling mortgage products.

Persimmon committed to returning a further £77m to shareholders as part of wider plans in which it proposed to return £1.9bn to shareholders by 2021

Nicholas Wrigley, group chairman, said: “Persimmon continued to perform strongly in 2016, meeting market demand with increased output and delivering disciplined high quality growth.

“The Group has now completed the first five years of its long term strategy which remains focused on growing Persimmon into a stronger, larger business while maintaining capital discipline and robust free cash generation.

“The strength of the Group’s operating model is demonstrated by our ability to grow completion volumes by more than 60% and investing c. £2.6bn of cash in land through this period while simultaneously returning over £1.0bn of excess capital to shareholders.”

Persimmon is Yorkshire’s largest listed company, and has a market value of £6bn.