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Be interesting to see if Elliott have anything to say at the AGM, or maybe they will wait until the new CEO provides a market update for analysts and investors in four weeks.

I do wonder if off loading the Spanish business is on the cards, given it’s not of significant importance in the wider scheme of things, but would probably bring a good price given Spain and the Balearics are experiencing strong growth in property sales.

Back of a fag packet, I would suggest a sale bringing ~ £350m to £400m. As Wimps have no need for the cash, could be split 50 / 50 special dividend and buy back. That would probably keep Elliot happy for a year or two.

@Rich. Jennie’s sale was to facilitate an option exercise and cover the tax due. She retained all the remainder of shares that had vested, as did the other Directors. As for the small purchase around the 11th, that’s just a small staff share scheme actioned every month.

Healthy increase in sales price of order book verses this time last year of ~£17k per unit ! That’s well over rate of build inflation. Let’s see what the market makes of it.

Hi Ben, seems all Wimps units selling strongly in North West, with new sites opening.

Problem is with the "builders" is that they have always been a target for popular politics and the media. It is rare indeed if you ever hear or read anything positive from politicians and media re builders. They don't seem to recognise that they generate a huge amount of industrial and retail activity, leading to healthy tax receipts from employment taxes, business taxes and wider supply chain and retail services.

It is no surprise that Gove issued an aggressive statement today, when he could have taken a more conciliatory / congratulatory tone. After all the builders are remediating their own properties, and are also contributing to the £4bn tax (will cost TW around £20m net per year).

Hopefully the market will move on, however I suspect that it will start to view builders more like utilities which are regulated, and trade on lower multiples. Might never see £2 again!

Hmmm, resorting to borrowing from local councils, and all the potential social friction if things go wrong. Why does a company of this standing (albeit the jury's still out re future prosperity), need to take money from social resources, rather than normal banking facilities.

@Crafty. Last years "Ingenuity spin" looks a little of the mark. The key phrase in your selective cut and paste "... our vision is for THG Ingenuity to become the platform of choice in the enterprise market, powering the digital transformation agenda for brands at a global level ...". With the benefit of hindsight, re Fitch's "vision" I would recommend a visit to Specsavers :-)

It's crazy to believe that a home grown proprietary IT platform (and mega expensive to maintain), can compete with the likes of SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, Salesforce etc., these guys have pretty much unlimited R & D to throw at their ERP platforms, and between them hundreds of years of success.

Hard to see how these results and more importantly "current trading" update will boost the SP. Current trading, and immediate future looks tough given amount of discretionary spend punters have at the mo. Also, one must consider that with a new Chairman and a horrible last twelve months management might decide to throw the kitchen sink at the accounts, and clear out all the skeletons ready for a new start.

My guess is that we will see right downs taken, slightly better sales revenue (albeit uninspiring for "growth" business) and they will caution on sales for near term.

On balance, if the market is in risk off mode then more chance of another leg down, rather than up. We will see.

Wimps decided to make a further provision of £80m, so I guess that will be taken in this first half year results. See what the market makes of it.

Wimps have said that they are comfortable with the £125m provision for remediation work, based on 20 years. UK GOV has insisted on going back 30 years. Wimps have said that they do not see a problem for them, however, going back that far muddies the waters with many original buildings being refurbished by government agencies (Local Authorities etc) and that refurbishment might require remediation. This is one of the main issues as who will then pay for that, not the original builder ?

Taken from 2021 results announcement:

"... this is where the caveats come in. You know that the Government has tried to push the timescale back to 30 years, and we have said in January and the only reason we have not touched on it today is because nothing has changed. Yeah, we are not seeing a problem for us in that 20 to 30-year period ..."

"... we have not had a single incoming call from on a building built by Taylor Wimpey in the 1990s, not one from a customer. This is an issue that has been going on. If there were buildings out there with real concerns in that, we would have heard. Our reticence about pushing it back 30 years is about scope creep ..."

"... it is not because we can see a big cost there for us between 20 and 30 years ..."

"... the other area where Government’s estimates differ from our own, and this is why it is hard to reconcile, is the examples we have seen, that they have shown in the 1990s or even some of the more challenging ones in the 2000s, are refurbishments. They are often refurbishments of affordable housing performed by Government ..."

So, you can see the issue here, Wimps (and I guess most other major builders) have allocated exceptional cost for remediation for their own buildings going back 20 years. Once you start to include older building that have been refurbished then that responsibility belongs to that entity that did the refurbishment ? UK GOV are trying to load all costs onto the major builders regardless.

UK GOV have probably decided that this is a can of worms and they did not realise how complex it would become. They have probably now decided to run away from the problem and announce that they have put the builders in their place with a fanfare, and Gove will move on and leave the more difficult problems for someone else in years to come.

I did see that Gove has insisted that the builders must sign the "pledge" by today. SO we can expect RNS's to be issued. Also, I wonder what legal standing a "pledge" has if push comes to shove further down the line for those refurbished buildings.

I guess that the "Analysts" will now be factoring this decision into their forecasts, given appropriate guidance from the builders. We can expect a few upgrades to their current guidance soon.

Also, because of the significance of this press release (when official one is released) each building company will likely issue an RNS detailing their actual obligations, and any further increase / reduction in exceptional costs to be taken in their accounts.

https://www.constructionnews.co.uk/government/4bn-developer-remediation-pledge-scrapped-after-government-negotiations-04-04-2022/

Almost there.

https://www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/news/deal-between-government-and-large-house-builders-on-fire-safety-costs-close-74945

Seems Gove has agreed to kick the issue of who pays for "orphan" developments into the long grass. Although not a totally clean resolution, and it still leaves a question mark hanging over the builders for the future, hopefully an announcement should remove current uncertainty and allow some recovery in share prices.

The builders (via HBF) have taken legal advice and it seems that UK GOV cannot make them pay for remediation on developments that they had nothing to do with, i.e. the "orphan" developments. Perhaps this is a red line for the builders, and Gove will still claim victory and spout in public how he (the Tories) have rung this money out of the builders (when most were getting on with remediation at their own cost anyway).

The tax payer will likely have to put right the "orphan" developments unless UK GOV spends time and money trying to chase down those developers, which I doubt as Gove got involved to play politics and win votes. Actually getting the job done comes secondary !

Still no white smoke re cladding settlement with UK GOV. Should be imminent, and hopefully a reasonable settlement so we can move on. Good to see a new new non exec Director buy £50k of shares.

You’re right, some will held back for management and employee share save schemes (25m shares) and the remainder cancelled.

As per buy back terms “ … To the extent permitted by law, 25 million ordinary shares purchased under the Buyback Programme will be held in treasury and the remaining shares that are purchased will be cancelled …””

Gove has said he wants a resolution by end of March. The original timeline was mid March, but he wasn’t happy with the builders proposition. HBF had meeting with builders last Thursday to decide next steps, no white smoke yet.

Looking at the corresponding (HBF website) seems like there is still a disagreement as to why UK listed house builders are being asked to cover all remediation costs, including those incurred by none UK based developers and manufacturers of materials.

Either, way something has to give imminently. Much depends if Gove still playing to the gallery with popular politics. Hopefully he will realise that UK GOV has no legal right to force listed house builders to pay for other third party remediation costs.

Just like UK GOV trying to force P & O to rehire and reinstate sacked seamen and then P & O go bust and a further 2200 people lose their jobs.

City not impressed with non exec Chairman. No experience in IT, or retail for that matter. Likely that MM believes he is still in control, and the City knows it. Not good.

Unlikely that SB will take up option.

Poor consumer confidence also weighing , so given the above can't see any reason for SP to do anything other than continue to drift lower, especially in these volatile markets.

@Annacott. Shares that fall this quickly and by this amount do not recover anywhere near as fast as they fell.

Looks like Wimps have spent ~ £20m of the initial £75m share buyback, to date. The remaining ~ £50m needs to be purchased no later than June 3rd. So, they should be purchasing at a similar rate as they have been for the first three weeks or so, unless they (Citi) are planning to buy in spurts and try and to chase the share price up somewhat.

Either way, need to get the uncertainty of the "cladding" issues sorted pronto otherwise I suspect the share price will continue to be under pressure. Should expect a press release from the HBF soon, given they were scheduled to meet the builders yesterday and Gove might not be minded to let the negotiations drift further out than next week.

Not helpful that ABRDN wrote an open letter to the UK builders suggesting that they just cough up the whole cost of removing the cladding, regardless of who developed the properties in the first place.

Not sure what you mean re price at close, all looks normal. However, Blackrock added a few more to take their interest up to 9.6%.