Vistry angers market with £30m loss as new boss faces turbulent start
Vistry has attracted the ire of shareholders and analysts after it revealed a £30m first-half loss, as the firm stutters under its new chief executive.
The FTSE 250 housebuilder delivered an unscheduled update to shareholders this morning, revealing that chief financial officer Tim Lawlor will quit in October after being headhunted by a “large privately-owned business”.
The firm also revealed an expected £30m loss in the period. It said it has slashed prices on some housing stock in a bid to drive sales amid a “challenging period for the industry”.
Shares in Vistry slumped by as much as 12 per cent on Wednesday, to 222p, despite the company reaffirming its £200m full-year profit target.
The housebuilder’s share price has been sliding since the shock departure of long-serving chief executive Greg Fitzgerald in March.
Vistry leaves ‘many unanswered questions’
The retiring Fitzgerald, who was known as a “sweary, likeable” leader and was beloved by many investors, was replaced by surprise internal pick Adam Daniels, a former Vistry regional manager.
Daniels has kicked off a review of the housebuilder but surprised some investors by offering an early look at his workings with Wednesday’s trading update.
“For his first piece of homework he submitted a draft rather than the polished finished article, and first impressions count,” Anthony Codling, managing director at RBC Capital Markets, said.
The analyst praised Vistry’s new boss for making “helpful” answers to investor queries but questioned his attempt to “soften the blow” of Lawlor’s departure with a “partial” strategy update.
Analysts at Investec noted that “many unanswered questions [are] remaining,” speculating that Daniels’ full review is likely to deliver further one-off profit impacts.
‘Big challenges’ remain on new model
Vistry had pleased investors with its switch to a “partnership” model at the end of 2023, by which it builds homes for housing associations and institutional landlords rather than individuals.
But Clyde Lewis, a housebuilding analyst at Peel Hunt, told Morning Wire that while the Partnerships strategy makes sense on paper there are still plenty of question marks about its real life performance.
“Housebuilder margins have been squeezed hard in the last couple of years and asset turn has deteriorated so the return on equity has been clobbered fairly hard over the last couple of years. It doesn’t look like market conditions are going to improve quickly, so that remains the big challenge,” he said.
Analysts noted that building cost inflation and rising mortgage rates have hit the housebuilding sector at large, with multiple leading firms slowing land buying in recent months.
But Daniels is left with an uphill battle to deliver £200m profit later this year, analysts said, as the housebuilder’s new chief executive insists there is “significant opportunity to develop a more focused Vistry”.