(Alliance News) - Berkeley Group Holdings PLC on Wednesday said it has performed in line with guidance, despite recent turbulence in the housing market.

In the year to April 30, the Surrey-based housebuilder reported pretax profit of GBP604.0 million, up 9.5% year-on-year to GBP551.5 million. Profit was slightly ahead of guidance of GBP600 million.

Revenue rose 8.6% to GBP2.55 billion from GBP2.35 billion.

It said forward sales were sustained at a "healthy" GBP2.1 billion, but the value of reservations for the financial year were around 15% lower annually.

The company added sales pricing remains firm and above business plan levels, and build cost inflation was moderating.

Chief Executive Officer Rob Perrins said: "Looking forward, we are well-placed to meet our guidance for the next two financial years and continue investing in our existing regeneration sites, but will remain cautious in committing to new investment until the conditions for growth are in place."

Berkeley said it expects to deliver pretax profit of at least GBP1.05 billion across its next two financial years combined, which is likely to be slightly weighted to financial 2024.

It also reaffirmed its commitment to deliver GBP283 million per year to shareholders up until September 30, 2025.

In the first six months of the financial year, Berkeley declared a 21.25 pence dividend and GBP111 million of buybacks. Then, in February, the company declared at interim dividend of 69.44p, taking the total dividend to 90.69p.

In a separate announcement, Berkeley said Non-Executive Directors John Armitt, Diana Brightmore-Armour and Andy Myers will step down, at the company's annual general meeting on September 8. They all served on the board for nine years.

The company noted that it has decided to take this opportunity to streamline the board by reducing its size, and so will not be replacing the departing non-executives.

In addition, Executive Directors Justin Tibaldi, Paul Vallone and Karl Whiteman will step down from the board at the 2023 AGM.

Following these changes, the board will comprise an independent non-executive chair, two executive directors and six non-executive directors. The board size will therefore be reduced from fifteen to nine.

Shares in Berkeley were down 3.2% to 3,787.00 pence each in London early on Wednesday.

By Sophie Rose, Alliance News reporter

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