The Lemon Fool

Bouleversee wrote:Thanks, Ian. That's £3402 not coming my way after all, just for PSN. You have the last laugh! I don't suppose there's much Covid-19 where you are either.

Persimmon is keen to support the Government in meeting this objective but the health, safety and wellbeing of the public and everyone who works on our sites and in our offices remains our top priority, and we will not recommence construction operations until we are satisfied that it is safe to do so. In the period since 25 March 2020, working closely with our colleagues, sub-contractors and suppliers, we have therefore developed and tested a range of new site protocols to enable work to recommence, while ensuring that the necessary social distancing restrictions are strictly enforced. These new measures are fully compliant with UK Government and Construction Leadership Council guidance.

The Group is therefore announcing today that it will begin a phased re-opening of its construction sites from the morning of Monday 27 April 2020 which will allow us to support our customers by completing the construction of the new homes they have purchased in a safe and responsible manner.

Bouleversee wrote:Thanks, Ian. That's £3402 not coming my way after all, just for PSN. You have the last laugh! I don't suppose there's much Covid-19 where you are either.

Highlights

Dave Jenkinson, Group Chief Executive, said: "In these unprecedented times we continue to be guided by our clear purpose of delivering long term sustainable returns for all our stakeholders. Focused management of the risks inherent in the housing market cycle has given us the financial strength to respond effectively and responsibly to the crisis and support our customers, our colleagues and suppliers, and the local communities we work in across the country, as the UK meets the challenges of the pandemic. We recognise the important contribution we make to the economy and wider society, and are determined to play our part.

"Our strong financial position and liquidity has enabled us to maintain our operational capability by retaining all staff on full pay through this period, without recourse to any Government financial assistance; to offer necessary support to our suppliers, subcontractors and local tradespeople; and to maintain our community and charity programmes, despite the economic shock of COVID-19.


Trading Highlights

Strong start to the year in the period before the COVID-19 lockdown - average private sales rate per site was c. 10% ahead year-on-year in the first 11 weeks of the period

Customer enquiries have remained at good levels through the lockdown period providing some encouragement on the resilience of demand

Current forward sales position, including legal completions taken to date in 2020, remains robust at £2.4bn (2019: £2.7bn)

The average private selling price of a new Persimmon home in our forward order book is c. £244,500 (2019: c. £237,850), c. 17% below the UK national average 1 , reflecting our commitment to providing 'homes for all'

The health, safety and wellbeing of the public and everyone who works on its sites and in its offices remains Persimmon's top priority, and the Group is continuing to adopt all UK Government and construction industry guidance on safe working procedures, as it progressively re-opens for business. In the weeks following 25 March 2020, when its construction sites were closed, the Group worked closely with its colleagues, sub-contractors and suppliers to develop and test a range of new protocols to enable work to recommence safely, in anticipation of a potential return to its sites and its sales offices in due course. It is this work that is now enabling a swift and efficient restart.

The Board of Persimmon Plc is pleased to announce the appointment of Dean Finch as Group Chief Executive. Dean will succeed David Jenkinson, who announced in February 2020 that he wished to step down once a suitable successor had been identified. Dean, 53, is expected to join the Persimmon Board and take up the CEO post at the end of the year.

Dean is a widely experienced senior executive with a strong commercial, financial and operational track record spanning a 30-year career in Europe and North America. He has been the CEO of National Express plc since 2010, and during his tenure has built the business into Britain's leading transport group. Prior to that he was Group Chief Executive of Tube Lines and Group Finance Director and Group Chief Operating Officer at First Group plc, where he also held a number of other senior roles.

Dave Jenkinson, Group Chief Executive, said:

"Throughout the period, we continued to be guided by our clear purpose of delivering long term sustainable returns in the best interests of all our stakeholders, while managing the risks inherent to the housing market cycle. The benefits of this consistent approach can be seen in the strength of Persimmon's performance in a first half dominated by the challenges of Covid-19.

"The safety of our colleagues, customers and suppliers has been paramount. When lock down restrictions required the suspension of site-based activity, Persimmon demonstrated its responsiveness with colleagues working from home continuing to progress site preparation work and our sales teams continuing to take reservations online. This dynamic response was made possible by the retention of all of our staff on full pay, without recourse to Government assistance, and provision of necessary support to our suppliers and subcontractors, to ensure operational continuity and enable a safe and structured re-start to site operations. As a result, our build programmes had returned to normal levels by period end, and we have seen encouraging sales levels throughout the period, in particular, over the last six weeks when net reservations have been c. 30% ahead year on year.

"We enter the second half in a strong position, with work in progress well advanced, forward sales c. 15% ahead year on year, and cash holdings of c. £830m.

"Our financial strength and the agility of the business in responding to Covid-19 has ensured Persimmon is in robust health, and fully able to play its part in delivering the new homes the country needs to support the UK's recovery, in a range of future economic scenarios."

Covid-19 update

The safety, health and wellbeing of our customers, our colleagues and the public remain our top priority and Persimmon continues to follow all public health guidance

The Group has not made use of the Government's Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme to furlough staff and has no plans to access any UK Government's Covid-19 funding

Having developed and tested new site protocols incorporating the latest Government and Construction Leadership Council guidance, the Group began a phased restart to work on site on 27 April 2020, with site-based sales offices re-opening on 15 May 2020

Trading highlights

Total revenues1 of £1.19bn (2019: £1.75bn)

New home legal completions of 4,900 (2019: 7,584)

Average selling price of c. £225,050 (2019: £216,942)

Use of online resources ensured sales continued through the lock down period, with c. 1,600 gross reservations secured in the 9 weeks ended 17 May 2020

Strong performance in the six week period since sales offices re-opened in mid-May - with average weekly net private sales reservations of 278 new homes, c. 30% higher than the same period last year

Encouraging forward order book with forward sales of new homes at 30 June 2020 of £1.86bn (2019: £1.62bn), c. 15% higher than last year

Cancellation levels remain in line with historic trends

Gengulphus wrote:Here is a repaired version of Ian's link to https://www.persimmonhomes.com/corporat ... -news-(rns)/rns-news/2440865.

Gengulphus

idpickering wrote:Thanks for that Gengulphus. Strange that the link didn't work?

Breelander wrote:

idpickering wrote:Thanks for that Gengulphus. Strange that the link didn't work?

When you originally posted the link the board's software interpreted the closing bracket in ....news-(rns)/rns-news/2440865 as the delimiter for the end of the url and truncated the link. In such cases you need to use the URL tags, with the opening tag saying: [url=<put you full url here>] followed by the text you want to be displayed, then the closing [/url] tag.

idpickering wrote:Thanks for that Breelander. Being a computer simpleton, that's a different language to me. But thanks anyway.

Breelander wrote:

idpickering wrote:Thanks for that Breelander. Being a computer simpleton, that's a different language to me. But thanks anyway.

Well, the thing to do is look at your post after posting. Most times posting a link works fine, by for a few cases with certain characters in the link it will get broken by the board software. The black text for the remainder of the link is the telltale symptom.

https://www.persimmonhomes.com/corporat ... -news-(rns)/rns-news/2440865

That's when you need to edit your post and use the url tags and, if it's a very long url, shorten the displayed text by replacing part of the middle with '...' eg, for your link type:

Code: Select all

[url=https://www.persimmonhomes.com/corporate/investors/regulatory-news-(rns)/rns-news/2440865]www.persimmonhomes.com...rns-news/2440865[/url]

...to get: www.persimmonhomes.com...rns-news/2440865

idpickering wrote:Third Quarter Trading Statement

https://www.investegate.co.uk/persimmon ... 00077430E/

Dod101 wrote:

idpickering wrote:Third Quarter Trading Statement

https://www.investegate.co.uk/persimmon ... 00077430E/

I do not hold but has that further interim div of 70p been announced before? If not it I assume will bode well for the future.

Dod