McCarthy & Stone on course to build 3,000 retirement homes a year
Fresh from its £1bn November IPO, retirement home builder McCarthy & Stone remains on course to build more than 3,000 homes a year in the medium term and hit targets for 2016, it said today.
Three regional offices which opened last autumn are also bringing in profit and land, the group said in a trading update.
The company’s order book of forward sales stood at £354m on 29 January – compared to £252m at the same point last year.
It has released 25 new development sites totalling 955 homes since 1 September 2015.
The builder reiterated its 2016 forecasts of a 20 per cent jump in sales volumes and a 1 per cent rise in return on capital employed.
McCarthy & Stone was valued at £967m or 180p a share in November when it launched an IPO to fund a four-year investment push.
Its shares were trading flat on today’s news after closing at 277.5p yesterday.
Chief executive Clive Fenton said the new offices in the South West, East Midlands and North West should support improving margins in the second half of the year.
“It has been another period of solid growth and investment since our successful IPO last year, with continued demand for our specialist retirement products,” he said.
McCarthy & Stone has a 70 per cent share of the market for owner-occupied retirement homes, it said.
The company has sold 50,000 properties on more than 1,000 developments since 1977.
Typical homes are private apartments for pensioners with shared ground floor facilities.
McCarthy & Stone was listed in London for 22 years before going private in 2006.