Taylor Wimpey earmarks £120m to fix cladding

March 3, 2021 / Isla MacFarlane
Taylor Wimpey earmarks £120m to fix cladding

Taylor Wimpey reported that its financial results are in line with expectations, completions down nearly 40% and a £456m hit to profits.

Group financial highlights:

  • 2020 results in line with expectations, with good recovery in the second half of the year as build capacity returned to near normal levels;
  • 9% decrease in Group completions to 9,799 (2019: 16,042) including joint ventures, primarily due to Q2 site shutdown with revenue of £2,790.2 million (2019: £4,341.3 million);
  • Operating profit* of £300.3 million (2019: £850.5 million), reflecting reduced volumes, delivering an operating profit margin of 10.8% (2019: 19.6%);
  • Profit for the year of £217.0 million (2019: £673.9 million);
  • Net cash‡ of £719.4 million (2019: £545.7 million);
  • Resumed Ordinary Dividend Policy to pay out c.7.5% of net assets, starting with a proposed 2020 final dividend of c.£151 million (4.14 pence per share), subject to shareholder approval;
  • Raised £510 million of net funds in an equity placing in June 2020, to pursue additional near-term land acquisition opportunities;
  • Agreed terms on and authorised c.£1.3 billion of gross land purchases by 31 December 2020, since re-entering the land market;
  • Announced today £125 million in funding to support fire safety improvement works for leaseholders in Taylor Wimpey apartment buildings (including those below 18 metres), built over the last 20 years, to ensure they meet current RICS EWS1 guidance.

Pete Redfern, Chief Executive, said: “2020 was a very challenging year, during which our priority has continued to be the health and safety of our colleagues, customers, suppliers and subcontractors. Operating performance has bounced back strongly in the second half of 2020, with build capacity returning to near normal levels and strong sales.

We are confident in the medium-term performance of the housing market and therefore accelerated our land purchases from May 2020 as high-quality land became available at attractive rates. We are now focusing on driving efficiencies across the business, the roll out of our new house type range and implementing our ambitious new environmental strategy.

The UK housing market has been resilient and continues to reinforce our confidence in our outlook. We are a cash generative business with a strong balance sheet, and we are pleased to announce today that we will reinstate our ordinary dividend in line with our aim of providing a reliable income stream to our shareholders.

As part of today’s results, we are also announcing help for building owners, with £125 million in funding to support fire safety improvement works to bring Taylor Wimpey apartment buildings constructed in the last 20 years up to the recently updated current RICS EWS1 guidance. We have taken this decision in order to provide certainty for customers and leaseholders and to avoid them bearing the cost of investment to ensure their buildings are safe.”

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