Persimmon reports a 25% surge in pre-tax profits

Persimmon posted a 25% rise in underlying profit before tax to £977.1m from £782.8m in 2016.

Highlights from its final results for the year ended 31 December 2017 include:

• Legal completions increased by 872 new homes to 16,043 (2016: 15,171) and average selling price increased by 3.2% to £213,321 (2016: £206,765);
• Revenue for the year up 9% to £3.42bn (2016: £3.14bn);
• Operating margin* increased to 28.2% (2016: 24.8%); with second half improvement to 28.8%;
• 26% increase in underlying basic earnings per share* to 258.6p (2016: 205.6p);
• 17,301 plots of land acquired in the year, with 8,296 plots successfully converted from the Group’s strategic land portfolio;
• 5% increase in forward sales at £2.03bn (2017: £1.89bn);
• Interim and Final dividends declared of 125p and 110p per share respectively.

Nigel Mills, Senior Independent Director and Acting Chairman, said, “Persimmon’s performance in 2017 has been excellent. The Group’s focus on high quality growth, coupled with capital discipline, has accelerated the delivery of our strategic objectives and generated record returns for our shareholders.”

“The Group’s outstanding performance is demonstrated by both the strength of the financial position of the business and the quality of the asset platform, which provides the opportunity to continue to deliver excellent returns moving forwards. Since the launch of the Group’s new strategy in 2012 the Group has increased new home completion volumes by more than 70% and invested c. £3.18bn of cash in land while simultaneously returning c. £1.49bn of surplus capital to shareholders.”

“The start to the spring sales season in 2018 has been encouraging with the Group’s private sales rate per site being 7% higher than last year at this point. The further increase in the Capital Return Plan demonstrates the Board’s confidence in the Group’s prospects.”