Results round-up

Persimmon reported a better-than-expected jump in first half pre-tax profit on Tuesday as the housebuilder shrugged off Brexit uncertainty.

Pre-tax profit rose 29% to £352.3m in the six months to 30 June on a 12% increase in revenue to £1.49bn. Analysts at Deutsche Bank had anticipated a 26% increase in pre-tax profits to £345m.

Legal completions increased 6% to 7,238 new homes sold while the average selling price grew 6% to an average of £205,762.

The underlying operating margin improved 330 basis points to 23.8%.

Return on average capital employed surged 29% to 35.6%.

Net cash came to £462.0m at the end of the period, up from £278m the prior year.

"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% ahead year on year,” said chief executive Jeff Fairburn.

“Our private sale reservation rate since 1 July is currently 17% ahead of the same period last year. The group is now trading through the traditionally slower summer weeks but customer demand remains encouraging and we anticipate a good autumn sales season."

Rank Group, which operates Grosvenor Casinos and Mecca bingo halls, reported an increase in full-year pre-tax profit and revenues and said it sees no likely impact from the Brexit vote.

Adjusted pre-tax profit for the year to the end of June ticked up 4% to £77.4m while group revenue nudged up 2% to £753m. Analysts had been expecting revenue of about £756m.

The company, which recently withdrew its bid for William Hill with 888 Holdings, said it saw continued strong digital revenue growth of 11%.

Chief executive Henry Birch said: “I am pleased to report a solid set of results with group revenue up 2%, again recording like-for-like growth across all brands and channels in the year.

“This year we have focussed on delivering significant projects to ensure we have the right platform in place for future growth. This included the migration of our digital business onto a new platform, the rollout of an improved retail casino management system and investments into new generation machines in both our casino and bingo venues."