LONDON (dpa-AFX) - Residential developer Taylor Wimpey PLC (TW.L) Thursday said its fiscal 2020 results will be in line with market expectations. The company further said it started 2021 with a strong order book, and remains confident of achieving medium term operating margin target of 21-22 percent.
The current Company compiled average consensus expectation for 2020 is for operating profit of 293 million pounds.
In its trading statement for the year, the company noted that total UK home completions, including joint ventures, decreased about 39 percent to 9,609 in 2020 from last year's 15,719, due primarily to the impact on production capacity during the second quarter shutdown.
The company delivered 1,904 affordable homes, including joint ventures, down from 3,548 units a year ago. This equated to 20 percent of total completions, down from 23 percent last year.
Cancellation rates for the full year were above normal levels at 20 percent, compared to 15 percent a year ago.
In the final quarter, cancellations were 16 percent, same as last year.
Average selling prices on private completions increased 6 percent to 323k pounds, with the overall average selling price increasing to 288k pounds from 269k pounds last year.
The company said it returned to near normal levels of production capacity towards the end of 2020 and continue to operate effectively in a COVID-secure way.
Pete Redfern, Chief Executive, said, 'While operations were impacted by the shutdown period in the second quarter, the subsequent return to near normal construction capacity and continuing resilience of the UK housing market enabled sales and production to recover strongly towards the end of the year.'
As previously stated, the company expects to recommence ordinary dividend payments in 2021, starting with the payment of the 2020 final dividend.
The company will review the special dividend in 2021 for payment in 2022.
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