Berkeley Group Holdings PLC (LON: BKG) have seen their shares in green, despite a poor update to shareholders on Friday morning.
The Berkeley Group Holdings plc is a British property developer based in Cobham, Surrey.
Shares of Berkeley Group trade at 4,560p (+0.24%). 6/12/19 10:26BST.
In September, the housing market saw a bruising from external shocks including Brexit complications. This led to Berkeley having to reassure shareholders about their trading figures ahead of their AGM.
Berkeley announced a dividend of 20.08 pence per share, to be paid on 13 September 2019; the remainder of the £139.2 million return for the six months ending 30 September 2019 has been ‘satisfied’ through share buy-backs.
Today, the FTSE100 listed firm saw a slump in first half pretax profits, as Brexit continued to weigh upon the UK Housing market.
A survey from mortgage lender Nationwide showed last week that home prices rose more than expected in November, suggesting this month’s national election was not putting further pressure on the market which remains sluggish, according to Reuters.
Berkeley sources three quarters of its revenue from London, set a pretax profit aim of £3.3 billion over the six years to 2025.
The firm expected profits to be within the £500 million and £700 million guidance in any one year.
The company, which operates primarily in London, Birmingham and the South of England, said pretax profit fell 31% to 276.7 million pounds ($355.01 million) for the six months ended Oct. 31.
The company delivered 1,389 homes during the period, down from 2,027 last year, while average selling price decreased 13% to 644,000 pounds.
Brexit has continued to cast a gloomy shroud over the UK Housing market and UK business more generally.
Yesterday, MJ Gleeson saw their shares in red despite a confident outlook to shareholders.
The firm said it expects to deliver annual results in line with forecasts backed up by a strong performance by its Home unit, however this did not seem to be enough to spark appetite.
The struggling nature of the UK homebuilding industry is one that has been seen for many firms, however competitors do seem to be making ground.
FTSE250 listed Homeserve saw their shares rally in November. The firm saw a 2% rise in pretax from £19.3 million to £19.7 million, which caught shareholders attention.
More clarity will be provided once the outcome of the uncertain General Election is announced in the next week, and hopefully this will put the UK business sector in good step to recover from a slump which has been caused by exogenous economic and political affairs.
