LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Irish homebuilder Cairn Homes said on Thursday that both interim revenue and profits had surged in the six months ended 30 June.
Cairn Homes posted a 61% year-on-year rise in revenues to €130.6m in the period, with gross profits up 86% at €24.2m and operating profits up 102% at €11.7m

Gross margins were up 240 basis points at 18.5% and operating margins were 180% basis points higher at 8.9%.

The London-listed firm also posted earnings per share of 0.85 cents, a marked improvement on the 0.16 cents per share reported at the same time a year earlier.

Net asset value per share was broadly flat at €1.01, while total equity was up €8.6m at €759.2m and net debt was 18.9% lower at €149.4m.

Cairn also stated it was recommencing its annual ordinary dividend programme and declared an interim dividend of 2.66 cents per ordinary share.

Chief executive Michael Stanley said: "Cairn has never been better positioned to play a leading role in the recovery of the housing market in Ireland. We have grown our order book from €214 million in January to a current high for our business of €655m and we will deliver 2,550 quality-built family homes between this year and next.

"We will continue to leverage our scale and capabilities to deliver competitively priced starter homes for first-time buyers. As we report today, our average selling price for these starter homes has remained largely unchanged at €371,000, including VAT."

As of 0950 BST, Cairn shares were down 0.15% at 96.85p

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