In the current climate, it's not every day of the week that you see a housebuilder making a loss. But Cairn Homes (CRN) floated in June 2015 and is only now starting to gather momentum. Operating in Ireland, in its first full year of operations it completed 105 sales, but there's already more than double this number in forward sales, worth around €121m (£105m). So at the operating level the previous year's loss of €3.8m, before exceptionals, was turned into a profit of €3.6m in 2016.
Building is currently taking place on seven sites, which over the years will ultimately deliver more than 2,800 units, and early trading in 2017 has seen the weekly sales rate rise to 19.7 a week from 10 in the fourth quarter of 2016. Around €266m was spent on acquiring new sites last year, and 96 per cent of its 12,100-unit land bank is residentially zoned or has planning consent. Cairn remains confident of achieving its 2019 target of more than 1,200 completions and adjusted cash profit margins of 20 per cent.
Most of the sites are in the Greater Dublin area. Last year's land acquisitions included the Argentum business and its six sites, as well as other sites in and around the capital.
Analysts at broker Whitman Howard are forecasting cash profits for 2017 of €21m (from €3.6m in 2016), giving EPS of 2¢.
| CAIRN HOMES (CRN) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 135.75¢ | MARKET VALUE: | €936m | |
| TOUCH: | 135.25-135.75¢ | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 137¢ | LOW: 87¢ |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | NIL | PE RATIO: | NA | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 96¢ | NET DEBT: | 11% | |
| Year to 31 Dec | Turnover (€m) | Pre-tax profit (€m) | Earnings per share (¢) | Dividend per share (¢) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015* | 3.72 | -37.5 | -15.9 | nil |
| 2016 | 40.9 | -2.8 | -0.3 | nil |
| % change | +1001 | - | - | - |
Ex-div: Payment: £1=€1.15 *From incorporation in 12 Nov 2014 to 31 Dec 2015 | ||||
