Cairn Homes interim revenue and profits surge

Irish homebuilder Cairn Homes said on Thursday that both interim revenue and profits had surged in the six months ended 30 June.

Cairn Homes posted a 61% year-on-year rise in revenues to €130.6m in the period, with gross profits up 86% at €24.2m and operating profits up 102% at €11.7m

Gross margins were up 240 basis points at 18.5% and operating margins were 180% basis points higher at 8.9%.

The London-listed firm also posted earnings per share of 0.85 cents, a marked improvement on the 0.16 cents per share reported at the same time a year earlier.

Net asset value per share was broadly flat at €1.01, while total equity was up €8.6m at €759.2m and net debt was 18.9% lower at €149.4m.

Cairn also stated it was recommencing its annual ordinary dividend programme and declared an interim dividend of 2.66 cents per ordinary share.

Chief executive Michael Stanley said: "Cairn has never been better positioned to play a leading role in the recovery of the housing market in Ireland. We have grown our order book from €214 million in January to a current high for our business of €655m and we will deliver 2,550 quality-built family homes between this year and next.

"We will continue to leverage our scale and capabilities to deliver competitively priced starter homes for first-time buyers. As we report today, our average selling price for these starter homes has remained largely unchanged at €371,000, including VAT."

As of 0950 BST, Cairn shares were down 0.15% at 96.85p