Taylor Wimpey Share News (TW.)

House builder Taylor Wimpey said it had leapt back into profit in the first half of the year after selling its North American unit.The company anonced a pre-tax profit of £28.9 m, compared with a loss of £2.3m a year earlier.It completed 4,707 homes in the UK in the first half, down from 4,804 last year.The firm said this was due to it prioritising margin improvement ahead of volume growth.UK average selling prices remained flat at £168k, it said.Chief executive, Peter Redfern, said it had been a "transformational six months for Taylor Wimpey with the sale of our North American business and significant progress towards our double-digit operating margin target in the UK". "We have a strengthened balance sheet, an increased financial capacity to invest in the UK and we are well positioned to deliver further improvement in margin and returns going forward," he said. The firm said it had approved the purchase of 5,289 plots on 55 sites in the UK. "Although there is ongoing uncertainty in the wider economic environment, current conditions in the UK housing market remain stable," Redfern said."We expect this stability to continue for the remainder of 2011 and remain on course to deliver profits in line with the board's expectations for the continuing group."