Barratt's 159% profits fly in face of slow market

Published by 24publishing for 24dash.com in Housing and also in Development, Finance

Housebuilder Barratt Developments has announced pre-tax profits of 159%, flying in the face of a stymied market and the recession.

The company also revealed that its net debt had almost halved.

Its final results for the year ending 30 June 2012 show that group revenues were up 14% to £2,323m. The company recorded 12,637 completions in the period, up from 11,078 the previous year.

Mark Clare, Group Chief Executive, said: “The year has seen a rapidly improving performance across the Group which shows that our strategy is delivering, with profits up 159% and an almost halving of our net debt. In the current financial year we expect to make further good progress, with more than half of completions forecast to be delivered from our more recently acquired higher margin land.”

The Government has taken steps to increase housebuilding output, which include incentivising housebuilders to build by dropping affordable housing requirements.