Redrow pays first interim dividend for 6 years

DividendMax Ltd.

Redrow pays first interim dividend for 6 years

Financial highlights

Revenues rose 41% to £363.0m driven by a 30% increase in legal completions and a 9% increase in average selling price to £232,000 (2013: £212,000)

Gross margin grew to 20.3% (2013: 18.0%) as a result of increased sales from sites purchased since 2009, and improved mix

Net debt rose to £149.0m (June 2013: £91.0m) as a result of increased investment in land, giving gearing of 23% (June 2013: 14.9%)

Value of private net reservations up 72% from £279m to £481m driven by increased demand

Return on capital employed improved to 14.2% (2013: 8.6%)

On the basis of our continued strong results the Board has decided to pay the first interim dividend for six years of 1p per share

Operational highlights

Average number of outlets increased to 93 (2013: 83)

Current land bank (owned and contracted) at the end of December 2013 was 16,250 plots (June 2013: 14,162 plots). The increase of 2,088 plots includes 1,033 converted from our strategic land bank

Volume of private net reservations in the first eight weeks of 2014 up 24% to 550

First significant contribution from London Division with £41.5m of turnover from 133 legal completions

Significant residential led mixed-use scheme development opportunity for London division on Peel Centre, Hendon

John Tutte promoted to Group Chief Executive, effective 30 June 2014

Steve Morgan, Chairman of Redrow, said:

"I am delighted to report another period of strong growth for Redrow, and that we will be paying an interim dividend for the first time in six years.

We have started the calendar year well with private reservations since January up 24% on last year from 12% more outlets. We expect the housing market to remain robust and for consumer confidence to improve in line with the economy.

We have a strong pipeline of new sites in planning and we believe the Government is committed to continuing to speed up the process of obtaining implementable planning permissions.

We therefore remain confident that this will be another year of significant progress for Redrow."

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