Taylor Wimpey swings to H1 loss as Covid-19 delays completions
By Iain Gilbert
Date: Wednesday 29 Jul 2020
(Sharecast News) - Homebuilder Taylor Wimpey expects full-year completions to drop as much as 40% in 2020 as a result of disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Taylor Wimpey said on Wednesday that the coronavirus has had "a significant impact" on production activity and completion levels for the first half of the year and noted the pandemic would also have a significant impact on full-year revenues and margins, as well as knock-on impacts in 2021.
The FTSE-100 listed group reported a 58% first-half drop in total completed sales to 2,713, however, its total order book value was actually up 23% from a year ago at £2.90bn as of 28 June.
Taylor Wimpey also posted a pre-tax loss of £39.8m for the six months ended 30 June, a marked turnaround when compared to the pre-tax profit of £299.8m recorded in the first half of 2019.
The Buckinghamshire-based company's basic loss per share came to 1.0p and operating margins slipped from 18.% a year ago to -2.1%.
Net cash surged 26.9% to £497.3m.
Chief executive Pete Redfern said: "I am pleased with Taylor Wimpey's performance during a very challenging time and am proud of the resilience, principled approach and agility that our teams have shown. Our performance for the first half of 2020 has been impacted by the closing of our sites and sales centres but we have now reopened all sites successfully and safely and have returned to a sustainable level of sales and build.
"Looking ahead, balance sheet strength, a long order book and our high quality and growing landbank gives us confidence in our ability to navigate the challenges and emerge stronger from the pandemic. While uncertainties remain, we are confident in the underlying fundamentals of the housing market."
As of 0830 BST, Taylor Wimpey shares were down 5.04% at 126.25p.
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