Berkeley Group on track to meet full year expectations

Berkeley Group, the FTSE 250 house building company, has said it is confident that it will meet expectations for the year ending April 30th and is on track to return 1,300p per share to shareholders by September 30th 2015.

As part of this, the group also said it has declared an interim dividend of 15p, marking the first return to shareholders since Berkeley repositioned the business in March 2009.

Since the first of November, the company has acquired three new sites at Finchley, Mill Hill and Maidenhead and secured eight further planning consents.

"These successes have secured additional value in Berkeley's land bank as well as reducing planning risk and underpinning the group's ability to deliver against its long term plan subject to market conditions," the firm said.

"These acquisitions, together with our continued drive to add value through optimisation which is expected to maintain the momentum reported in the first half, give the board confidence towards achieving its target of 10% growth in the land bank for the full year."

NR