Countryside says expansion plan is on track

Housebuilder Countryside Properties has reported a pre-tax profit on growing revenues for the first time since 2011.

In its full year results tabled at Companies House, Countryside reported pre-tax profit of £5m at its parent company Copthorn Holdings for the year to 30 September 2013, up from a £6.7m loss in 2012.

Revenue grew 6% on the previous year to £308m.

Countryside was last year sold to venture capital firm Oaktree and is embarking upon a major expansion programme.

The group said its operating profit, without taking into account debt interest, nearly doubled to £24.9m, from £13.3m in 2012.

The improved performance came despite the firm’s number of legal completions in the year falling sharply, from 1,906 to 1,560 due to a decline in the number of affordable homes built.

The number of private homes sold rose 13% to 858.

Countryside has set out an ambitious plan to double the size of the business in four years, amid speculation it is being lined up for a stock market flotation.

Executive chairman Ian Sutcliffe said the results showed Countryside was on track with its expansion programme, and said the reduction in total completions was simply a technicality related to progress of large affordable housing schemes, comprising mainly of flats.

He said: “We’re currently performing ahead of schedule on our expansion plan. This year we’ll build around 1,800 homes, turnover will be up in line with our plans and private completions will go up.

“The fall in affordable completions is a bit of an anomaly. Actually our turnover in 2013 was very much in line with previous years, but the numbers only reflect the units we technically achieved completions, which can fluctuate when you’re on big flatted projects that complete all at once.

“It’s not a slide back in our affordable business.”

The results cover the period prior to Countryside’s acquisition of luxury housebuilder Millgate Developments in February.

The accounts also reveal that Copthorn Holdings has been loaned £192m by its ultimate owner Oaktree, on which it paid £11m in interest in 2013.

Sutcliffe said the loan did not indicate that Countryside’s performance would be weighed down by debt related to its purchase by Oaktree, but simply reflected the way the operating company was funded by its holding company.