LONDON (Alliance News) - Retirement housebuilder McCarthy & Stone PLC reported a steep decline in interim profit on Wednesday, despite strong revenue growth.
McCarthy & Stone's pretax profit for the six months ended February 28 was GBP3.6 million, down 66%, due to GBP14 million of exceptional costs related to restructuring and redundancies.
Excluding this, underlying pretax profit was up 64% to GBP18.9 million.
The FTSE 250 firm's revenue came in at GBP280.5 million, up 17% year-on-year, with legal completions 11% higher at 845.
McCarthy & Stone has held its interim return to shareholders flat at 1.9 pence per share.
The company had made "significant" progress in its new strategy, having appointed two executives to lead its Build & Production and Sales & Services units, and improved margins.
Chief Executive Jon Tonkiss said the results were "encouraging", and said despite economic and political uncertainty in the UK it is confident on its prospects for the remainder of its year, which is the 14 months to November.
As of April 5, McCarthy & Stone's order book was GBP485 million, down 17% year-on-year, with higher quality reservations now being held "due to improved controls".
The shortfall is due to organisational changes within Sales & Services, now finished, and a planned lower level of sales releases.
For its full year, McCarthy & Stone reiterated guidance of 2,300 completions, with an average selling price of around GBP300,000.
In the 12 months to August, the firm recorded an average selling price of GBP300,000, with legal completions at 2,134 units.
In a separate announcement, McCarthy & Stone announced the appointment of Gill Barr as a non-executive director, effective immediately.
Barr has held senior strategy, marketing, and business positions at companies such as John Lewis & Partners, B&Q-owner Kingfisher PLC, as well as Mastercard Inc.
Chair Paul Lester commented: "We are pleased to announce Gill's appointment as a non-executive director and we welcome her to the board. Gill brings considerable expertise in terms of customer strategy, proposition development and communication including effective use of digital channels."
"I am confident she will make a valuable addition to the group and help deliver our new strategy," he added.
Shares were 0.6% lower on Wednesday morning at a price of 125.60p a share.
