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| Wimpey growth depends on US market improvement  George Wimpey, one of the UK's largest housebuilders, issued the pre-close trading statement ahead of preliminary results for the year ended 31 December 2006, to be announced on Wednesday 21 February 2007. As a result of the strong performance in our UK business Wimpey expects total group completions to reach a record level (2005: 17,021), with over 75% of completions now coming from the UK (2005: 71%). The UK landbank has been significantly strengthened and is expected to account for around 75% of the total group year end landbank (2005: 68%).Trading conditions in the US have continued to be poor. This process will be finalised at the year end, based on market conditions at that time, and the group expects it to result in a one-off after tax impact in 2006 of around 2.5% of group net assets. Group profit before tax for 2006 is expected to be in line with our expectations, prior to U.S. option exit costs and land value provisions. Year end gearing is expected to be below the 2005 level of 34%. The tax rate for 2006 is expected to be 30%. Wimpey said changes to UK land strategy, coupled with a deliberately cautious approach in the US have enabled it to rebalance operations to mitigate the effect of the US market downturn. write your comments about the article :: © 2006 Construction News :: home page |