Member Article

Barratt Developments announce surge in profits

Housing developer Barratt have announced a spike in profits in their final results for this year.

Profits jumped by 159.3% before tax to £11.7m, with a significant increase from activity last year which produce only £42.7m pre-tax profits.

Barratt said its operating margins had also improved in the second half by 9.5%, and for the full-year margins were up 8.2%.

The group completed a total of 12,637 projects and raised revenues of £2,323.4m, which yielded an increase of 14.1% from 2011.

Mark Clare, Barratt Group’s 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.

Mr Clare said the company expects to push profitability even further. He said:“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.”

Company debts were halved to £167.7, while the share value remained strong at £2.13 per share, up .01 pence from the previous year.

Barratt announced its strong financial stance alongside improvements in housing types and land quality.

The organisation highlighted three key strategies as it moves forward. Mark Clare said Barratt hopes to “optimise selling prices”, “improve operational efficiency” and “deliver targeted land buying”.

Bob Lawson, chairman of the group explained what Barratt Developments expected for the future in his annual report.

He said: “Inevitably there is ongoing economic uncertainty in the UK market and as such we do not expect to see significant growth in customer demand over the next year.

“However, the strategy we are pursuing is capable of delivering significantly enhanced returns without an improvement in market conditions.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Miranda Dobson .