(Alliance News) - Vistry Group PLC on Wednesday said trading across its business during the UK's Covid-19 lockdown has been positive.
The housebuilder - formerly known as Bovis Homes - said that while trading in March was hurt by the Covid-19 outbreak, the introduction of virtual tours has allowed the sales team to continue to operate during the lockdown period.
Over the past eight weeks, the company has exchanged on 310 homes and completed a total of 257 sales. Forward sales with housebuilding reservations including Vistry Partnerships development activity totaled GBP1.5 billion.
Vistry stated that its Partnerships business has had strong start to the year, with 70% of production capacity already restored across all its 73 contracting sites. It added that it has a forward order book of GBP827 million.
"In respect of Partnerships development activity, we are operating on 31 of our 34 sites. Interest from housing associations and investors continues to be strong, and demand from private buyers is improving steadily," the company said.
The FTSE-250 listed company said that as at Monday, it had net debt of GBP476 million and committed banking facilities totalling GBP770 million. It also said it is eligible to secure funding under the Covid Corporate Financing Facility.
The Covid Corporate Financing Facility is designed to help larger firms to maintain liquidity amid disruption caused by the Covid-19 outbreak, through the purchase of short-term debt in the form of commercial paper.
Vistry added that it expects to further reduce staff as part of its review, with the reduction expected to result in annual savings of around GBP9.5 million.
"In these unprecedented times, the group's performance during lockdown has been better than initially expected in respect of reservations, completions and cash management. We are pleased by how effectively our site management and health and safety teams have adapted to the new operating procedures. As a result, we currently have more than 5,600 operatives working safely across our developments and expect productivity to continue to increase," said Chief Executive Greg Fitzgerald.
The stock was trading 2.9% lower at 737.50 pence each on Wednesday morning in London.
By Ife Taiwo; ifetaiwo@alliancenews.com
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Vistry Grp (VTY)