Persimmon reports strong profits

Housebuilder Persimmon has reported a £77.8 million pre-tax profit for 2009 compared to a prior year loss of £780 million after writing up the value of its landbank.

The financial highlights were:

• 8,976 legal completions for the year (2008: 10,202) at an average selling price* of
£160,513 (2008: £172,994)
• Sales revenue for the year of £1.42bn (2008: £1.76bn)
• Pre-tax profit of £77.8m following exceptional release of £74.8m of net realisable value
provisions (2008: £780.0m loss, after £904.8m exceptional charge)
• Underlying pre-tax profits** of £7.0m (2008: £126.6m), with a profit of £23.7m being
generated in the second half
• Underlying operating margin** in the second half improving to c. 6% from 1.6% in the
first half. Full year margin of 4.0% (2008: 11.3%)
• Net borrowings*** at the year end reduced to £267.5m (2008: £600.7m), comfortably
within c. £1bn facilities
• Basic earnings per share 24.7p (2008: 208.3p loss per share)
• Net assets per share increased by 4.3% to 540.2p (2008: 518.0p)
• Strong forward sales of c. £900m, up 29% on 2008 of £698m
• 90 new sites scheduled to open in the first half of 2010
• Healthy landbank of 60,454 plots (2008: 69,279) owned and under control, representing
over six years’ supply
• c. 5,500 plots acquired or terms agreed – includes c. 1,900 pulled through from strategic
land portfolio

John White, Group Chairman, said: “Our cash generation and cost control have
placed the business in a strong position both operationally and financially for a
recovering market. Prices have held firm since the beginning of the year and we
remain focused