Update: Trading profits down at Grainger

The boss of residential property group Grainger is to step down for reasons of ill health.Rupert Dickinson, chief executive officer of Grainger, will relinquish the role on 20 October and step down from the board. He will be replaced by current deputy chief executive officer and finance director, Andrew Cunningham.Following Cunningham’s elevation to the chief executive role the company is on the look-out for a new property director and finance director.In a separate announcement the company said it expects total group sales in the year to end-September 2009 to be about £220m, up 21.6% on a year earlier.Sales from the group’s core and retirement solutions portfolio were virtually flat, at £169m, versus £168m the year before.As expected, margins have diminished as a result of falling house prices and a lower proportion of sales with vacant possession, and as a result trading profits will be below 2008 levels.The group cut back on property acquisitions this year in order to conserve cash, splashing out just £12m compared to £146m the year in 2008.Some stability has returned to the market in the last few months which is being reflected in the prices being achieved on current sales which are running just 0.7% below the levels seen in September 2008.A preliminary valuation of Grainger’s UK residential portfolio indicates an approximate 2.5% decline from end-September 2008 levels. Grainger plc