Crest Nicholson hits £1bn sales target

24th Jan 2017 08:54

(ShareCast News) - Housebuilder Crest Nicholson Holdings has bounced back from a drop in the demand for houses post Brexit-vote by achieving its £1bn annual sales target for the year end. The FTSE 250 company recorded statutory revenues of £997m plus £3.3bn through joint ventures for the 12 months ended 31 October 2016, a rise of 24% compared to revenues in 2015.Profit after tax rose 27% to £195m, which was slightly short of market expectations of £196m due to higher admin costs.Crest upped the volume of homes it built by 5% to 2,870 and the gross development value of land pipelines was up 2% to £10,646m.Forward sales at mid-January were £533.3m, 4% ahead of the previous year, securing 37% of this year's forecast.The company's balance sheet also improved with return on capital employed at 31.3% compared to 26.8% in the previous period and net cash at year-end at £77m, up from a net debt of £30.6m in 2015.The board hefted the total dividend up 27.6p, up 40% on the previous year, with earnings coverage at 2.25 times.Chief Executive Stephen Stone said: "This has been a landmark year for the business. In spite of a temporary impact on sales around the time of the vote to leave the European Union, we have achieved sales of £1bn including through joint ventures, in line with our stated target."We remain committed to, and on track to deliver, our targets of 4,000 homes and £1.4bn of sales by 2019."The share price fell 1.06% to 486.20p at 0922 GMT on Tuesday.