Persimmon H1 Revenues Climb On Higher Volume, Price; Says Confident Of Future

(RTTNews) - UK-based home builder Persimmon Plc. (PSN.L) Wednesday reported that its first-half revenue grew 12% to 1.66 billion pounds from last year's 1.49 billion pounds.

In its trading update, the company said its trading performance in the first half of the year has been excellent.

The company increased legal completion volumes by 8% to 7,794 new homes from last year's 7,238 homes. The growth in new homes sold demonstrates its drive to meet market demand in all its regional markets across the UK, the company noted.

Average selling price improved 3.5% to about 213,000 pounds from 205,762 pounds last year.

Group sales through May and June were healthy, leaving weekly private sales rate per site for the first half about 7% ahead of last year at 0.80.

The company said it continued to experience good levels of customer demand since April 27 update, with the market taking the snap UK General Election in its stride. Consumer confidence remains resilient and compelling mortgage rates continue to offer good support to new home buyers.

The company said it expects operating margin in the first half will comfortably exceed the 25.7% delivered in the second half of the prior year. Total forward sales value as of June 30 was 1.60 billion pounds, 18% higher than last year.

Looking ahead, the company said it is confident in its future prospects.

The company will announce Half Year Results on August 22.