Bovis Homes to beat expectations with record profit for 2019
Vistry Group has reported that Bovis Homes is set to beat market expectations to deliver record profit despite political uncertainty putting pressure on prices last year.
The housebuilder said this morning that it expects its Bovis operation to report pre-exceptional profit before tax for 2019 to be above an analyst consensus of £181.6m.
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The company completed the £1.1bn purchase of two Galliford Try businesses earlier this year, acquiring Linden Homes and Galliford’s partnerships and regeneration business.
The merged group changed its name to Vistry as part of the integration.
“As previously reported, market uncertainty surrounding Brexit and the general election led to some increased pressure on pricing in the second half resulting in around a 1 to 2 per cent reduction in underlying sales prices for that period,” Vistry said in a statement this morning.
Bovis completed a total of 3,867 new homes in the year, up from 3,759 in 2018, including 58 joint venture completions.
The number of private homes completed rose from 2,567 in 2018 to 2,678 last year, with 1,189 affordable housing units.
Vistry chief executive Greg Fitzgerald said: “The group has made further operational progress over the past 12 months and for 2019 expects to deliver another year of record profit.
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“Building high quality new homes for our customers has been, and remains our priority, and I am confident we will finish the year as an HBF 5-star housebuilder.
“We completed the transformational acquisition of the Linden Homes and the remaned Vistry Partnerships at the start of this year; integration is well under way and we are fully focused on delivering the clear and significant benefits from this exciting combination as quickly as possible.”