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LONDON (Alliance News) - Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey PLC posted a slightly higher annual profit than analysts expected as the company said it experienced "another" strong year in 2018.
Pretax profit for 2018 was GBP810.7 million, up 19% on last year. Excluding exceptional items pretax profit came in at GBP856.8 million, slightly above company-compiled analyst consensus of GBP854.0 million and up 5.5% on the GBP812.0 million generated in 2017.
Taylor Wimpey's revenue came in at GBP4.08 billion, up 2% on the year before, but marginally short of consensus of GBP4.10 billion.
The company has already declared dividends worth GBP499.5 million for 2018, and for 2019 it plans to pay some GBP600 million, as already announced, made up of both both ordinary and special dividends.
As announced in January, Taylor Wimpey completed 14,933 homes in 2018, up 3% on the prior year, with affordable home completions rising to 3,416 homes from 2,809 homes. These now make up 23% of Taylor Wimpey's total builds.
The FTSE 100 firm's average selling price for 2018 was flat at GBP264,000.
Some 36% of sales used the UK government's Help to Buy scheme, and of these, 77% of sales were to first time buyers at an average price of GBP270,000, up from GBP256,000 the year before.
At the end of 2018, Taylor Wimpey's order book was "very strong", with 8,304 homes from 7,136 homes at the end of 2017. This is valued at GBP1.78 billion, from GBP1.63 billion a year before.
"2018 was another strong year for Taylor Wimpey with good progress against our strategic priorities. We delivered in line with our expectations, achieving a strong sales rate and record revenues," commented Chief Executive Pete Redfern.
"Despite ongoing macroeconomic and political uncertainty, we have made a very positive start to 2019 and are encouraged to see continued strong demand for our homes. We enter the year with a strong order book and a clear strategy in place to deliver long term value for shareholders."
"We are very pleased with how our business is adapting to our customer-centred strategy. We are enhancing every step of our customers' buying and aftercare service so that we become the first choice homebuilder in all market conditions," Redfern added.
