Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg
News of a personnel change at the top has caused shares in housebuilder Berkeley Group to sink in end-of-week trading.
At £38.52 per share, the FTSE 100 company was last dealing 7.2% lower on Friday.
Berkeley – which focuses on home construction in London and the South East of England – said that Rob Perrins will vacate his position as chief executive during the autumn. He will be replaced by chief financial officer Richard Stearn.
Perrins – who has held the chief executive position since for 16 years – will take over the role of chairman after Michael Dobson steps down after Berkeley’s AGM on 5 September.
Berkeley commented that Perrins “has overseen a period of exceptionally strong performance and value creation” since his appointment as CEO in 2009.
It added that his replacement by Stearn “will uphold Berkeley’s longstanding tradition and preference for promoting from within which maintains the culture and values of the organization and provides continuity and stability for the company, our people and shareholders.”
Results Match Forecasts
Alongside those boardroom changes, Berkeley announced full-year trading numbers that came in line with market forecasts.
Revenues crept 0.9% higher to £2.5 billion, during the 12 months to April as the UK housing market remained under pressure. The FTSE firm delivered 4,047 new homes over the period, up from 3,521 previously.
Including joint ventures, the number improved to 4,329 from 3,927.
Average selling prices dropped to £593,000 from £664,000, which Berkeley said “[reflected] the mix of properties sold in the year. ”
The builder’s operating margin crept 0.6% higher, to 20.1%.
Pre-tax profit ducked 5.1%, to £529 million, while net cash dropped to £337 million from £532 million the year before.
Positive Performance
Chief executive Perrins commented that the full-year trading statement “represents an excellent operational performance with highly disciplined execution and close control of costs.”
He noted that “we have added long-term value to the business, both in our land holdings and through our Build to Rent (BTR) platform, while returning £381.5 million to shareholders; a great start to the Berkeley 2035 strategy.”
Under its 10-year growth program, Berkeley plans to create a market-leading BTR platform alongside delivering on pipeline sites and investing in new land.
Perrins added that “there is good underlying demand for our homes, with transaction volumes gradually improving over the course of the year.” But he added that “consumer confidence remains finely balanced and a more meaningful recovery requires both improved sentiment and macroeconomic stability.”
Work To Be Done
On Berkeley’s full-year numbers, analyst Aarin Chiekrie of Hargreaves Lansdown commented that while “sales continued to tick higher over the year,” he added that “they remain well below the group’s long-term targets, showing there’s a lot of work still to be done.”
He noted that “a lot of this is outside of Berkeley’s control though and will depend on further interest rate cuts and broader economic stability to help boost buyer confidence.”
Chiekrie added that “with over 75% of sales for the current year already locked in, Berkeley looks well-placed to hit its full-year pre-tax profit guidance of at least £450 million.”
