TIDM46QW
RNS Number : 9462H
Peabody Capital PLC
29 November 2022
Peabody Group including Peabody Trust, Catalyst Housing Limited,
Peabody Capital PLC, Peabody Capital No.2 PLC
Trading update for the 6 months to September 30, 2022
This is an unaudited, consolidated trading update for Peabody
Group including Catalyst Housing Limited, Town & Country
Housing, Peabody Capital Plc and Peabody Capital No.2 Plc for the
six months ending 30 September 2022.
On 1 April 2022 Peabody and Catalyst joined together, with
Catalyst Housing Limited becoming a subsidiary of Peabody Trust.
The joining together of the two organisations will create a
responsive, locally focused organisation which will be better
connected with customers. The scale of the organisation provides
the scope to invest a nd innovate more in services, homes,
communities, technology and people. The legal process continues to
run to timetable, and it is expected that the transfer of
engagements of Catalyst Housing Limited into Peabody Trust will
complete in April 2023.
The combination of high inflation, higher and rising interest
rates, labour and material shortages and an economic downturn
represents a very challenging time for our customers, for our
colleagues and for Peabody as a whole. We welcome the recent
conclusion of the rent consultation process which provides a
financial base from which we can now plan to meet those challenges.
Our priority remains our customers and their safety. We will
continue to allocate our resources accordingly and are actively
taking steps to prioritise our investment as we respond to the
challenging economic environment
Highlights for the Peabody Group
6 months 6 months
to September to September
Highlights 2022 2021
Homes in management 104,540 67,732
Homes completed in the period 1,004 502
Turnover (GBPm) 515 346
Operating margin 27% 36%
Surplus for the period (GBPm) 85 87
Drawn debt (GBPm) 4,445 2,963
Available facilities (GBPm) 1,722 1,116
Cash (GBPm) 113 110
Eamonn Hughes, CFO of Peabody, made the following comments on
the half-year results:
"Our trading performance continues to be in-line with
expectations and remains robust despite challenging economic
conditions. Arrears continue to hold at normal levels, and we are
working hard to help our customers access all of the support
available to them through the cost of living crisis. Our
substantial investment in building safety, maintenance and
placemaking activities has continued despite rising cost
challenges. This resulted in an increase in capital expenditure and
operating costs leading to an expected reduction in overall margin
in the period. While lower than the corresponding period, sales
margins are at budgeted levels, and we expect to achieve our target
sales volumes for the full year.
Our liquidity position remains strong with access to substantial
cash and undrawn facilities post-merger. We continue to lead the
way on ESG, highlights in the last month include publishing our
second report under the Sustainable Reporting Standard for Social
Housing and holding a successful jobs fair."
Continuing investment in our existing homes
So far this year we have invested GBP65m in our existing homes
including GBP34m on building safety despite the current challenges
of inflation and labour and material shortages. We continue to aim
to strike the right balance between completing the building safety
programme and increasing regular investment in existing homes.
Ensuring customers are safe and comfortable in their home is a
priority and will continue to be so.
We also focusing our resources on damp, mould and condensation
in our homes, with a dedicated team to help manage complex cases,
as well as proactive reviews and audits, whilst piloting new
approaches and utilising technology to help solve recurring
problems. There is more to do, and we are committed to increasing
planned investment in existing homes.
New homes development and sales
In response to the current economic environment, we are
carefully managing our development programme and maintaining
appropriate flexibility on the level of future spend and
commitments. Our sales performance in the year to date has been
positive, margins on completed sales are consistent with the second
half of 2021-22 and our expectations. This includes completions on
the first phase of our regeneration of Thamesmead. At the 30
September, we had sold or exchanged on more than three-quarters of
the full year sales budget. We are monitoring closely the impact of
rising mortgage costs and movements in market pricing on sales
performance in what remains of this financial year.
Staircasing has continued to perform well, demonstrating the
strength of the shared ownership product and our investment in
Joint Ventures in recent years is also starting to provide benefits
generating a surplus in the first half of the year
Our unsold completed homes remain at low levels and continues to
be subject to tight monitoring.
Unsold new homes
- Peabody Group
at 30 September Reserved
2022 /
exchanged Available Total
3 - 6 months 21 67 88
Over 6 months 42 95 137
Funding and liquidity
We retain very strong access to liquidity, with GBP1.8 billion
of cash and undrawn facilities to ensure that we can continue to
operate and deliver for the benefit of our residents in challenging
times. We continue to have very low gearing compared to the sector.
Break costs associated with the merger incurred in the period were
GBP6m, substantially lower than originally budgeted. We continue to
have over 80% of our borrowing at fixed rates, giving good
protection against expected interest rate rises. Our average
borrowing cost is less than 4% demonstrating our ability to absorb
increased borrowing costs on our remaining floating rate debt.
Ratings update
In October both S&P Global and Moody's put Peabody's ratings
(A- S&P Global, A3 Moody's) on negative outlook, in response to
their reassessment of the outlook for the UK sovereign to negative.
Peabody continues to produce a robust financial performance with a
low level of gearing, high liquidity and a strong balance sheet. We
have built flexibility into our operations to respond to current
economic challenges, with appropriate mitigating actions,
underpinned by a robust business plan. We remain committed to
holding a strong credit rating.
Peabody continues to have a G1 (Governance) and V2 (Viability)
rating from the Regulator of Social Housing.
ESG
Peabody remains at the forefront of promoting ESG credentials
for the sector. In October we published our second detailed report
under the Sustainable Reporting Standard for Social Housing
https://www.peabodygroup.org.uk/media/16377/esg_report_2022.pdf
including information on both Peabody and Catalyst. We will shortly
publish our revised Sustainability Strategy.
Board and executive changes
Zebrina Hanley will leave the Peabody Trust Board on 30 November
2022.
Matthew Martin and Ann Bentley will join the Board on 1 December
2022.
Elly Hoult will join the Peabody executive team early in the New
Year. Ash Fox will step down from the Peabody executive team with
effect from 30 November 2022 and Sarah Thomas in March 2023.
Statement of Comprehensive
Income - Peabody Group
6 months 6 months
to September to September
2022 2021
GBPm GBPm
Turnover - from core operations 383 254
Turnover - from sales 132 92
Turnover 515 346
Operating costs 299 186
Cost of sales 121 80
Surplus staircasing/disposal
of fixed assets 42 44
Operating surplus 137 124
Net interest costs(3) 66 37
JV Surplus 14 -
Surplus for the period (2) 85 87
Operating margin 27% 36%
Sales margin % 8% 13%
EBITDA - MRI %(1) 209% 323%
1 - operating surplus excluding
depreciation and amortisation,
less capitalised repairs /
interest expense
2 - revaluations of investment properties
are performed at year end only
3 - excludes GBP6m break costs incurred
as a result of the merger process
Enquires
Please contact Anthony Marriott, Director of Treasury &
Corporate Finance at anthony.marriott@peabody.org.uk
This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the
London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct
Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United
Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution
of this information may apply. For further information, please
contact rns@lseg.com or visit www.rns.com.
RNS may use your IP address to confirm compliance with the terms
and conditions, to analyse how you engage with the information
contained in this communication, and to share such analysis on an
anonymised basis with others as part of our commercial services.
For further information about how RNS and the London Stock Exchange
use the personal data you provide us, please see our Privacy
Policy.
END
TSTFKLFLLFLXFBZ
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 29, 2022 07:00 ET (12:00 GMT)
Peabody 5.25% (LSE:46QW)
Historical Stock Chart
From May 2024 to Jun 2024
Peabody 5.25% (LSE:46QW)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jun 2023 to Jun 2024
