Profits hike at Steve Morgan’s Redrow group
PROFITS have continued to surge at housebuilder Redrow, prompting the group’s first interim dividend for six years.
The group, headed by Wolverhampton Wanderers owner Steve Morgan, saw first half pre-tax profits more than double to £47.5m on rising revenue of £363m, up 41%.
As a result it will pay an interim dividend of 1p a share.
The group said sales increased due to a 30% rise in legal completions and a 9% hike in the average selling price to £232,000. Gross margins grew to 20.3% from 18% and the land bank at the end of December was 16,250 plots, up from 14,162 in June.
Morgan said: “I am delighted to report another period of strong growth for Redrow, and that we will be paying an interim dividend for the first time in six years.
“We have started the calendar year well with private reservations since January up 24% on last year from 12% more outlets. We expect the housing market to remain robust and for consumer confidence to improve in line with the economy.
“We have a strong pipeline of new sites in planning and we believe the Government is committed to continuing to speed up the process of obtaining implementable planning permissions. We therefore remain confident that this will be another year of significant progress for Redrow.”
Net debt rose to £149m from £91m due to investment in land.
