Taylor Wimpey is issued an update on trading ahead of its full year results for the year ended December 31, 2015, which will be announced on March 1, 2016.
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In 2015, total home completions increased by 7% to 13,341, including share of joint venture completions (2014: 12,454). During 2015, the company delivered 2,509 affordable homes (2014: 2,178), equating to 19% of total completions (2014: 17%).
Net private reservation rate for 2015 was 0.73 homes per outlet per week (2014: 0.64). Cancellation rates remained low at 12% (2014: 14%). Average selling prices on private completions increased by 9% to £254k (2014: £234k), benefiting from our focus on better quality locations. Overall average selling price increased by 8% to £230k (2014: £213k).
Taylor Wimpey ended the year with a record year end order book, which increased in value by 27% to £1,779 million as at 31 December 2015 (31 December 2014: £1,397 million), excluding joint ventures. This order book represents 7,484 homes (31 December 2014: 6,601 homes).
Taylor Wimpey enters 2016 with 297 outlets (December 31, 2014: 305) located in high-quality locations where people want to live.
In 2015, the first year of company's medium term targets, Taylor Wimpey will report an improved operating profit margin of over 20% (2014: 17.9%) and a return on net operating assets of over 25% (2014: 22.5%).
The company ended the year with net cash of c.£225 million (December 31, 2014: £112.8 million net cash), due to the strength in underlying trading and after the payment of £308 million of dividends to shareholders in 2015 (2014: £73 million).
During 2015, Taylor Wimpey also made significant progress towards its medium term target to convert an average of 65% of operating profit into operating cash flow for 2015 - 2017. ■
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