Barratt spends £50m on share buyback programme

Leicestershire housebuilding giant Barratt has spent around £50m as part of a share buyback programme it announced in September last year.

Barratt has snapped up 428,407 shares at 10p each from Credit Suisse International (CSI) as part of the third tranche of the £200m share repurchase programme.

To date, Barratt Developments has purchased 10,745,638 ordinary shares in aggregate for cancellation from CSI in connection with the third tranche of the programme.

The move comes just weeks after the company warned investors against a “challenging economic backdrop” as it revealed its half-year results to the end of 2022.

The company says it enjoyed a strong performance because of a “significant” forward order book, but said that the second quarter of the period saw lower reservation rates for future sales.

Barratt said that it has seen some early signs of improvement during January, but that momentum will have to continue before it can be confident that the current economic troubles are easing.

Adjusted profit before tax was up 15.9% at £521.5m and reported profit before tax also rose 15.9% to £501.5m during the 26-week period.