Persimmon’s profit jumps as demand from customers remains “encouraging” after the Brexit vote
Housebuilder Persimmon brushed off any worries the company has been hit by Brexit as it posted a strong set of half year results today.
The company's share price was up 4.24 per cent in afternoon trading after it announced profit before tax jumped 29 per cent in the six months to the end of June, up to £352.3m.
Revenue increased 12 per cent, reaching £1.49bn, and the average selling price of Persimmon's homes was up six per cent. The housebuilder sold 7,238 new homes, an increase of six per cent as compared to last year.
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Persimmon's sales rate was up 17 per cent. Liberum analysts said this "resilience of trading" since the beginning of July was "the key surprise".
"The shares trade at a justified premium," Liberum said.
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George Salmon, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: "With analysts already confident that Persimmon would report strong numbers for the first half, all eyes were on what the group would say about trading since the EU referendum.
"With cancellation rates actually declining, and sales rates and visitor numbers up strongly, Persimmon at least look to remain in rude health at present."
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Jeff Fairburn, Persimmon's chief executive, said: "Persimmon's robust trading performance in the first half of 2016 was driven by our continued focus on meeting market demand to deliver controlled sustainable growth.
"While the result of the EU referendum has created increased economic uncertainty, customer interest since then has been robust with visitor numbers to our sites around 20 per cent ahead year-on-year."
Fairburn said "customer demand remains encouraging" and that the company is looking forward to a good autumn sales season.