Vistry has issued a third profit warning in as many months, with its forecast being cut by over 40% since October last year.
The developer said that its pre-tax profit will now be £50million below its most recent revised forecast of £300million. Vistry initially forecast profits of £430million for its 2024 financial year before issues with its south division came to light.
In October, Vistry said that errors with cost reporting in its south division would mean that nine schemes would cost 10% more than originally expected and resulted in an initial lowering of the developer’s profit forecast. The issue was also to blame for a second reduction in November.
The housebuilder issued its third profit warning on Christmas Eve, which it says was “primarily due to delays to expected year-end transactions and completions”.
Vistry added: “The group has seen a number of agreements with its partners which were expected to complete in FY24 take longer to conclude, and now expects these transactions to complete in FY25.”
“In addition, the group has chosen not to proceed with a number of proposed transactions where the commercial terms on offer were not sufficiently attractive. The group believes more attractive options will be available in FY25. We have also seen a delay to some open market completions expected in FY24 which has, to a lesser extent, contributed to the profit impact.”
Vistry is set to provide another update in a trading statement in mid-January before its annual results are released on 6 March.
