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(Alliance News) - Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey PLC on Wednesday posted a full-year revenue climb with completions rising to a company record.
Revenue in 2019 came in 6.4% higher at GBP4.34 billion from GBP4.08 billion, with the FTSE 100 firm's pretax profit rising 3.1% to GBP835.9 million from GBP810.7 million.
Before exceptional items however, pretax profit dipped 4.1% to GBP821.6 million from GBP856.8 million. In 2019, the company made a GBP14.3 million gain from such one-off items, swinging from a GBP46.1 million loss.
The exceptional credit in 2019 was related to the implementation of a pension increase exchange arrangement. In 2018, among its exceptional costs was a GBP30.0 million provision related to aluminium composite materials cladding.
The company conducted a review on all legacy and current buildings following the fire at the Grenfell Tower in London in June 2017.
Market consensus, compiled by Taylor Wimpey, had seen pretax profit before exceptional items at GBP821.5 million, which has been matched by the company. Revenue was forecast by the market at GBP4.29 billion, meaning a beat for Taylor Wimpey.
For 2019, the firm reported completions of 16,024, up 5.0% from 15,275 the year before.
Taylor Wimpey added: "However, in an environment where the political and economic outlook has been uncertain, average sales prices remained flat, while build cost inflation increased."
The company upped its full-year dividend by 22% to 7.64 pence per share from 6.24p in 2018.
Taylor Wimpey said: "We have made a positive start to 2020 coming into the spring selling season and, with a clearer political outlook, customer confidence has improved."
"Whilst we recognise the ongoing trade discussions with the EU may create some volatility in sentiment in the housing market in the near term, we see the clearer political outlook as providing a longer period of stability for our customers," the company added.
Shares in the company were down 0.9% at 217.10p each in early trade in London on Wednesday.
By Eric Cunha; ericcunha@alliancenews.com
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