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| Barratt pretax profit up 10 percent Barratt Developments, the largest British home builder, said a pretax profit increased to £180.2m, up 10% on the first half of 2005 at £163.9m. Its housebuilding turnover was £1,191m (2005: £1,167m) up by 2%. Total completions increased by 2.9% to 7,206 (2005: 7,003) at an average selling price of £165,000 (2005: £162,900). Basic earnings per share increased to 52.6p, up 9% from the 48.2p delivered in 2005. As a result of this strong first half performance, an interim dividend of 11.38p per share will be paid on 25 May 2007, to shareholders on the register on 30 March 2007. This interim dividend will be 4.6 times covered and represents an increase of 10% over last year's 10.34p per share payment. Land bank has increased 11.9% to c.70,500 plots (December 2005: c.63,000), including 8,000 plots (December 2005: 7,000 plots) agreed subject to contract. This equates to 4.8 years' supply at 2005/6 volumes (December 2005: 4.3 years). Barratt said the housing market in the first half was highly competitive but stable. The fundamentals of the market remain sound with demand continuing to outstrip supply. write your comments about the article :: © 2007 Construction News :: home page |