Highlights
Underlying profit before tax increased by 52% to £225.1m (2011: £148.1m)
Full year revenue up 12% to £1.72bn (2011: £1.54bn)
Legal completions increased by 6% to 9,903 (2011: 9,360) and average selling price increased 6% to £175,640 (2011: £166,142)
Operating margin** increased to 13% (2011: 10%); with second half improvement to 13.7%
Return on capital employed increased by 47% to 12.2% (2011: 8.3%)
A further c.14,800 plots acquired in the year bringing consented landbank to 68,200 representing 6.9 years supply
Continued focus on the development of strategic land with c.38% of replacement land successfully converted from the Group's strategic landbank
Underlying basic earnings per share increased by 57% to 57.6p (2011: 36.8p)
Net cash of £201m at 31 December 2012 (2011: £41m cash)
Pre dividend cash generation of £179m
Forward sales strongly ahead at over £1bn (2012: £927.4 million), an increase of 9%
Management succession plan announced in January 2013. Mike Farley, Group Chief Executive to retire at AGM in April and will be succeeded by Jeff Fairburn, Group Managing Director
Capital Return Plan
Excellent start to the delivery of the new long term strategy and a solid outperformance of initial expectations
First cash return from long term capital return plan, 75p per share, to be paid on 28th June 2013, subject to shareholder approval
Nicholas Wrigley, Group Chairman, said: "These strong results mark the completion of the first year of our new strategy and I'm pleased that at this early stage we are ahead of plan. The first cash return from the long term capital return plan, 75p per share, will be made on 28 June 2013.
"Persimmon has made excellent progress throughout the year increasing underlying pre-tax profitability by 52%, growing operating margins strongly to 13% and generating £179 million of free cash flow before dividends. We continue to see good value in the land market and acquired c.14,800 plots during the year, 38% of which were converted from our own strategic land bank.
"We have made a strong start to the new year, with forward sales reaching the £1 billion milestone, an increase of 9% on last year. Mortgage availability remains the key constraint to the housing market. However, there are some signs that lenders are embracing the Government's Funding for Lending scheme and we have seen some recent reductions in mortgage rates. We anticipate increasing our active outlet number to around 390 sites by the end of June, helping to increase the volume of new homes that the country needs."
