27 April 2017 – trading statement
A trading update has been provided to coincide with the company’s AGM. On the whole this was reassuring. The total order book currently stands at 9,219 homes (2016 week 16: 8,811 homes), excluding legal completions to date. The total order book value has increased by 2% to approximately £2,210m from the equivalent point last year (2016 week 16: approximately £2,168m), and by 31% from the year end.
There has been a review into historic lease structures and the company is putting aside around £130m as a provision with regards to this. To put this in context it represents approximately 2% of the current market capitalisation. On balance the shares remain a BUY for now but it will be interesting to see if the price remains above the 200p level in the near term.