Bellway stacks up profit

UK housebuilder Bellway delivered a solid increase in full year pre-tax profit, helped by a strong performance in London, and said reservations since July 31 have remained in line with expectations.

Pre-tax profit rose to £105.3m for the year ended July 31 compared to £67.2m the same time a year earlier. Revenue for the period increased to £1bn versus £886.1m a year earlier.

Net asset value increased to 933p from 888p the year before while the number of homes sold increased to 5,226 from 4,922 in 2011. The average selling price increased to £186,648 from £175,613 before.

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Chairman Howard Dawe commented: "Consumer demand for new homes has shown continued resilience and...growth has been driven by the group's strong performance in the south of the country and has been further strengthened due to the increase in private completions".

Reservations have remained stable and ahead of last year, helped the availability of the government's recently introduced NewBuy scheme, which provides up to 95% loan to value mortgage products in England, the group explained.

The total dividend increased has increased to 20p from 12.5p before.

Bellway also confirmed that Chief Executive John Watson will become non-executive Chairman with effect from February 1 2013 and Ted Ayres, the current Operations Director, will succeed him.

CJ