Results round-up

Barratt Developments hiked its dividend by a quarter after the housebuilder's profits mushroomed in the first half of the year.

The FTSE 100 construction group generated £295m pre-tax profit in the six months to the calendar year end, an increase of 40.3% on revenues that rose 19% to £1.88bn.

Earnings per share were 40.6% higher at 23.9p.

Cash generation remained strong, with the group expected to have a net cash balance of more than £250m at the June year end.

So directors were confident to lift the interim dividend to 6p, up 25% on last year's, and trumpet that they expect the capital return plan to generate a special cash payment of £125m with full year results, or 30.5p in total for the year, plus for 2017 a further 37.3p in total.

This equates to a return over the next two years of around £678m of cash through ordinary dividends and special cash payments, or a total of 67.8p per share - slightly more than most analysts were expecting.

Despite an increase in customers and the amount of credit issued, International Personal Finance’s revenue and profit before tax has dipped.

The FTSE 250 credit business reported revenue dropped from £783.2m to £735.4m for the calendar year, however it rose 4.1% on a constant currency basis.

That in turn made profit before tax and exceptional items dip from £123.5m to £116.1m.

That was despite an increase in customers from 2.64m to 2.81m, and a small rise in credit issued from £1.022bn to £1.043bn.

Chief executive Gerard Ryan said it was a robust performance considering a number of significant regulatory matters impacting the business.

“It was an excellent year for IPF Digital and Mexico and we intend to increase our investment and accelerate expansion plans in these businesses.

“Our European home credit businesses, with the exception of the Czech-Slovakia market, increased underlying profit growth in challenging trading conditions.”

However, Ryan warned that new legislation in Poland and Slovakia will impact the group’s profitability in 2016 and beyond, with regulatory headwinds to continue.