Barratt reports £592m loss

Housebuilder Barratt Developments posted a large trading loss, but said it would not need to call on shareholders for cash.

The group reported a loss before tax in the six months to 31 December 2008 of £80million, excluding exceptional items, compared with a pre-tax profit the year before of £201.8million.

With exceptionals, the pre-tax loss widened to £592.4million, compared to a profit of £194.6million the year before.

Turnover fell 23.7 per cent to £1,261.9million from £1,652.8million at the interim stage in 2007.

Net debt at the end of 2008 was £1,422.8million, £315.7million lower than the end-2007 figure and down £227.8million from the second half of last year.

Forward sales at the end of 2008 were £456million, compared to £1,263million at the end of 2007. By the middle of February, the forward sales figure had increased to £633million.

The group has reduced its prices and is now seeing some signs of increased activity levels in terms of visitor numbers and sales.

Chief executive Mark Clare said: “This remains an intensely difficult market with little forward visibility. We are continuing to offer customers every possible assistance to move house, ranging from shared equity products to part exchange on their current home.

“For the last six weeks we have been making 0.47 private sales per site per week, up 20.5% on the first half of the financial year, and visitor levels at 1.99 per site per week are currently up 24.4% on the first half.”