Building group Abbey PLC today reported a pre-tax profit of €15.2 million for the year to the end of April, a turnaround of almost €70 million on the previous year.
Abbey said its house building operations completed 535 sales (395 in the UK, 112 in Ireland and 28 in the Czech Republic) with a turnover of €86.6 million generating an operating profit of €12.9 million.
In the year to April 2009 the company recorded a pre-tax loss of €54.4 million.
“Market conditions over the period sustained the improvement previously noted and a better cost environment helped support our margins,” Abbey said in a statement.
It said the outlook for the year ahead suggested there would be lower levels of house building activity in both Ireland and England as the company operates with slow moving stock (Ireland) and depleted stock levels (England).
Abbey said the UK market had noticeably softened in recent weeks and that further weakness cannot be ruled out. It said aggressive selling in the Irish market was continuing to clear a backlog of housing stock.
“We are budgeting significantly lower turnover in both England and Ireland this year reflecting our relative success in sales during the reporting period and the slow pace of our restocking.”
Abbey stock was trading at €4.49 this morning, up 3.2 per cent.
