Telford Homes Share News (TEF)

(ShareCast News) - Residential property developer Telford Homes reported a drop in interim pre-tax profit but said it remains confident of meeting current market expectations for reported profit in the year to the end of March 2017.In the six months to the end of September, pre-tax profit slumped to £9m from £21m last year as revenue declined to £104.3m from £139.6m. The company said the drop in profit was entirely due to development timings. It pointed out that the reported profits in any period are partly driven by the number of open market completions and as expected, there were far fewer of these in the first half of 2017 than in the same period a year ago.As a result, results for the year to the end of March 2017 will be weighted towards the second half of the year with more completions due in that period.Telford upped its dividend to 7.2p per share from 6.5p the year before.Chief executive Jon Di-Stefano said: "Telford Homes is in a very strong position with over £700 million of forward sales secured and a substantial development pipeline. The recent launch of City North in Finsbury Park exceeded our expectations achieving over 70 sales at higher than anticipated prices and proving that the right product in the right location remains attractive to buyers."The group is extending its involvement in the build to rent sector and expects an increasing number of opportunities to secure revenues and earn higher capital returns through forward funding arrangements with institutional investors. Overall we are well positioned to deliver on our targets of achieving more than £50 million of annual pre-tax profit by 31 March 2019 and doubling the size of the business over the next five years."At 1050 GMT, the shares were up 1.3% to 317.88p.