Last checked at 
(Alliance News) - Irish housebuilder Cairn Homes PLC said Thursday it looks forward to 2020 "with real confidence", after delivering strong growth in sales and revenue in 2019.
In a trading update for the year ended December 31, the company said its revenue grew 29% to EUR434 million from EUR337 million a year before.
Cairn expects to report 1,080 closed unit sales, an increase of 34% from 2018.
Cairn Homes said operating profit for the period is expected to increase by 28% to EUR68 million from EUR53.2 million in 2018.
The housebuilder said a strong demand for new homes in 2019 was underpinned by the competitiveness of its average selling price of EUR372,000, compared to EUR366,000 the prior year, with first-time buyer starter home average selling price of EUR314,000.
"Cairn's model will continue to deliver a large volume of new homes to the market at these price levels where first time buyers can get access to mortgage finance," the company said.
Michael Stanley, co-founder and chief executive officer, said: "With more certainty around Brexit, the robust performance of the Irish economy and the fact that housing supply still falls significantly short of demand, we believe our business model is well positioned to take full advantage and we look forward with real confidence to 2020 and beyond."
In a separate statement, the company announced an extension of its share buyback programme.
The EUR25 million share buyback programme was announced on September 12 and completed on Monday, with total of 20.8 million shares purchased at a price of EUR1.20.
The company said it intends to increase the size of the share buyback programme by another EUR35 million, for a total of EUR60 million.
The extended share buyback programme commenced today and may continue until August 31, subject to market conditions the company noted.
The housebuilder expects to have generated EUR500 million in free cash by the end of 2022.
Cairn Homes will announce its annual results on March 3.
Cairn Home shares were up 1.8% in London at EUR1.33 on Thursday.
By Loreta Juodagalvyte; loretajuodagalvyte@alliancenews.com
Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
