Springfield Properties (SPR) builds houses in Scotland, where the ground rules are a little different from in England. Even so, in the first year as a publicly quoted company, adjusted operating profits were up by more than a third, while net debt more than halved to just £15.3m.
Completions were up a quarter at 770, while the acquisition of Dawn Homes lifted the land bank to 12,476 plots, with a gross development value of £2.4bn. However, the acquisition meant that the return on capital employed was down from 11.9 per cent to 11.3 per cent. Average selling prices on private homes rose by 12 per cent to £221,500, more than enough to offset input cost inflation of around 4 per cent.
Springfield has expanded its affordable housing division, with revenue up 60 per cent at £37.3m, while a change in sales mix saw average selling prices dip from £127,000 to £120,000. The Scottish government has placed heavy emphasis on affordable housing, committing £3.2bn to fund a target of 50,000 affordable homes between 2016 and 2021. Active sites grew from 25 to 41, while planning consent was secured on 1,793 plots in 10 different developments.
House broker N+1 Singer is forecasting adjusted pre-tax profit for the year to 31 May 2019 of £14.5m and EPS of 13.6p (from £9.8m and 9.3p in 2018).
| SPRINGFIELD PROPERTIES (SPR) | ||||
| ORD PRICE: | 117p | MARKET VALUE: | £ 113m | |
| TOUCH: | 112-122p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 139p | LOW: 108p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 3.2% | PE RATIO: | 12 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 82p | NET DEBT: | 19% | |
| Year to 31 May | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
| 2017* | 111 | 6.69 | 9.18 | nil |
| 2018 | 141 | 9.22 | 10.0 | 3.7 |
| % change | +27 | +38 | +9 | - |
| Ex-div: | tba | |||
| Payment: | tba | |||
| *Pre-IPO | ||||
