Barratt Developments (LON:BDEV) looks to be another good asset play. The current market seems to be throwing lots of them up.
Recent Half yearly report available here:
· Revenues for the half year were in line with the prior year equivalent period at £877.6m (2009: £872.4m)
· Completions for the period were 4,832 (2009: 5,053), including 36 (2009: 25) joint venture completions
· Average selling price (excluding joint venture completions) increased by 5.7% against the prior year equivalent period to £175,800 (2009: £166,300), with private average selling price increasing by 10.8% to £191,900 (2009: £173,200), mainly as a result of mix changes
· The drive to improve business performance and rebuild profitability led to a significant increase in operating margin to 5.0% (2009: 0.6%), with profit from operations in the first six months of £43.5m (2009: £5.2m)
· Loss before tax for the period of £4.6m (2009: loss before tax of £178.4m)
· Terms were agreed on £318.0m of land purchases, comprising 57 sites and 6,078 plots, which are expected to deliver attractive margins based on current selling prices
· Net debt reduced year on year to £537.0m (2009: £605.3m) and is forecast to be around £400m at 30 June 2011 (30 June 2010: £366.9m)
· The Group has delivered 0.57 (2010: 0.55) private sales per active site per week in the last six weeks, in line with the equivalent period in the prior year and up from 0.39 in the first half
Asset Position - Balance sheet:
The net assets of the Group increased by £5.2m to £2,905.4m between 30 June and 31 December 2010. Significant balance sheet movements include:
· Land holdings reduced by £65.0m to £2,243.7m. This decrease reflects land additions of £174.7m offset by land usage.
· Work in progress increased by £81.0m to £1,062.4m in accordance with the increase in sites at the end of the period. The Group maintains tight control over its work in progress and at 31 December 2010 the Group had 837 (30 June 2010: 746) unreserved completed units.
· Available for sale financial assets increased by £19.0m to £155.3m reflecting the 1,342 completions which used HomeBuy Direct or the Group's own similar products during the half year.
· Group net debt increased by £170.1m to £537.0m reflecting…
