HENRY BOOT PLC
('Henry Boot', the 'Company' or the 'Group')
UNAUDITED INTERIM RESULTS FOR THE SIX MONTHS ENDED 30 JUNE 2021
Henry Boot PLC, a Company engaged in land promotion, property investment and development, and construction, announces its unaudited results for the period ended 30 June 2021. Ticker: BOOT.L: Main market premium listing: FTSE: Real Estate Investment and Services.
HIGHLIGHTS
· Revenue of £129.0m (June 2020: £108.7m) increased 18.7%, as demand increased across our three key markets
· Profit before tax of £23.1m (June 2020: £7.2m) increased by 220.8%, ahead of Board expectations, driven by the industrial property market performing strongly and delivering positive capital returns through disposal of investment property, revaluation gains and returns from Joint Ventures contributing a combined £5.8m
· Increased ROCE¹ of 6.3% (June 2020: 2.1%) +4.2% for the six months to 30 June 2021 and EPS grew significantly to 14.1p (June 2020: 4.1p) up 243.9%
· Actively investing in our three key markets, with a total of £54.9m invested in new opportunities across the Group, including £11.5m of post period purchases
· NAV² per share grew to 256p (December 2020: 235p), an increase of 8.9%, due to retained earnings and actuarial gains on the defined benefit pension scheme
· Balance sheet remains robust, with Net Debt³ of £13.0m as at 30 June 2021 (December 2020: Net Cash £27.0m) after strategic investments made in the period
· Declaring a 2.42p interim dividend (June 2020: 2.20p), an increase of 10.0%, reflecting the Group's strong operational performance and in line with our progressive dividend policy
· Against a backdrop of strong demand within our key markets we have made excellent progress in our evolved strategy and towards our medium-term growth and return targets
· Land promotion business sold 2,288 plots (December 2020: 2,000). The land bank has now increased to 92,253 plots (December 2020: 88,070), including 13,273 (December 2020: 15,421) plots with planning permission which are held at the lower of cost or net realisable value and, therefore, do not benefit from valuation gains
· Committed programme materially stepped up to £444m (HB share: £181m) – 60% pre-sold or pre-let. Led by over 1 million sq ft of industrial and logistics (69% pre-sold or pre-let). Strong £1.4bn development pipeline (HB share – £1.1bn) with 72% in industrial and logistics
· Stonebridge Homes on track with its annual sales target, securing 85% of the annual target in H1, supported by a buoyant housing market. The total owned and controlled land bank is now 1,125 units
· Construction business performing ahead of expectations, securing over 100% of its 2021 order book (68% is public sector) in the first half and 80% also secured for 2022
· Good start to the second half, with a full order book and forward sales in land, development and housebuilding, as well as, launching our Net Zero Carbon Framework and establishing a Responsible Business Committee
1 Return on Capital Employed is an alternative performance measure (APM) and is defined as operating profit/average total assets less current liabilities
² Net Asset Value (NAV) per share is an APM and is defined using the statutory measures net assets/ordinary share capital
³ Net (debt)/cash is an APM and is reconciled to statutory measures in note 14
Commenting on the results, Chief Executive Officer Tim Roberts said:
“The business has performed well, responding to growing demand within our key markets. Whilst we expect profit to be weighted to the first half, the cadence of our activity will remain high, so we will continue to make excellent progress on our clear strategic targets. This will position us well for sustainable growth in the future”.