Trading Update

LiveWest Treasury PLC

12 May 2023

 

LiveWest Trading Update for the 12 months ended 31 March 2023

LiveWest issues its unaudited group trading update for the 12 months ended 31 March 2023, with comparatives to the audited position for the 12 months ended 31 March 2022.

Financial and Operating Performance

Turnover for the year of £300m is £29m higher than in 2022 (£271m) due to £10m higher rental and other lettings income and £19m higher shared ownership and open market sales.

Operating costs were £28m higher in the year mainly as a result of £15m higher cost of sales of the sale of shared ownership and open market homes, repair costs £8m higher (due to an increase in damp and mould related volumes and spend, higher planned spend as a result of fire safety works and higher cost responsive repairs).

Surplus for the period is £54m (2022: £53m) Movement in Fair Value of Financial Instruments has increased our surplus for the period by £6m (2022: £1m). This improvement reflects increases to the yield curve in the year, reducing the liability of our one swap instrument which is not hedge accounted.

Statement of Comprehensive Income
	12 Months	12 Months
	Mar-23	Mar-22
	£m	£m
Turnover	300	271
Operating Costs	(239)	(211)
Surplus on Disposal of Properties	16	19
Operating Surplus	77	80
Net Interest Payable	(28)	(30)
Revaluation of Investment Property	(1)	3
Movement in Fair Value of Financial Instruments	6	1
Surplus for the period	54	53
Financial Indicators
	12 Months	12 Months
	Mar-23	Mar-22
Operating Margin on Social Housing Lettings	23%	26%
Gross Margin on Shared Ownership Sales	22%	21%
Gross Profit Margin on Open Market Sales	19%	19%
Sales as Percentage of Turnover	29%	26%

Sales of open market (our share only, if part of a joint venture) and shared ownership homes totalled 441 units for the year (2022: 403).

Sales and margins on housing sales continue to perform strongly, with margins stable compared to 2022. As at 31 March 2023, we had 105 shared ownership stock units, of which 44 were unreserved (March 2022: 64 stock/13 unreserved), and 7 open market stock units (our share only, if part of a joint venture), of which 4 were unreserved (March 2022: 10 stock 3 unreserved).

Housing Properties (net of depreciation) have increased to £2,317m from £2,227m at March 2022. Net Debt has increased to £941m (March 2022: £913m).

Customer satisfaction is 86% (March 2022: 87%). Void losses for our general needs stock were 0.54% (March 2022: 0.56%). Rent arrears were 1.83% (March 2022: 2.03%).

Liquidity

At 31 March 2023 LiveWest had liquidity of £377m, consisting of available undrawn facilities of £365m, and available cash of £12m.

Development

988 homes for rent and shared ownership were handed over in the year (2022: 800). We have a contracted pipeline of 2,006 affordable homes (March 2022: 2,414).

Building Safety

At 31 March 2023 100% of homes had an up to date Fire Risk Assessment (March 2022: 100%). 100% of homes had a valid Gas Safety Certificate (March 2022: 99.99%) and 100% of rented homes met the Decent Homes Standard (March 2022: 100%).

Board and Executive Team Changes - 12 months to March 2023

There have been no changes to the Board in the year to March 2023.

LiveWest Treasury plc: there were no changes to the membership of the board.

LiveWest Rating

LiveWest Homes Ltd is rated A2 (negative) by Moody's (Mar 2023), and G1/V1 by the Regulator of Social Housing (December 2022).

END

For more information, please contact:

Andrew Hart, Director of Corporate Finance                        01392 814444

https://www.livewest.co.uk/about-us/for-investors

Disclaimer

The information contained herein (the "Trading Update") has been prepared by LiveWest Homes Limited (the "Parent") and its subsidiaries (the "Group"), including LiveWest Treasury plc (the "Issuer") and is for information purposes only.

The Trading Update should not be construed as an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities issued by the Parent, the Issuer or any other member of the Group, or any interest in any such securities, and nothing herein should be construed as a recommendation or advice to invest in any such securities.

Statements in the Trading Update, including those regarding possible or assumed future or other performance of the Group as a whole or any member of it, industry growth or other trend projections may constitute forward-looking statements and as such involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, performance or developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Accordingly, no assurance is given that such forward-looking statements will prove to have been correct. They speak only as at the date of the Trading Update and neither the Parent nor any other member of the Group undertakes any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future developments, occurrence of unanticipated events or otherwise. The information contained in the Trading Update is unaudited.

None of the Parent, any member of the Group or anyone else is under any obligation to update or keep current the information contained in the Trading Update. The information in the Trading Update is subject to verification, does not purport to be comprehensive, is provided as at the date of the Trading Update and is subject to change without notice.

No reliance should be placed on the information or any projections, targets, estimates or forecasts and nothing in the Trading Update is or should be relied on as a promise or representation as to the future. No statement in the Trading Update is intended to be a profit estimate or forecast. No representation or warranty, express or implied, is given by or on behalf of the Parent, any other member of the Group or any of their respective directors, officers, employees, advisers, agents or any other persons as to the accuracy or validity of the information or opinions contained in the Trading Update (and whether any information has been omitted from the Trading Update). The Trading Update does not constitute legal, tax, accounting or investment advice.

Figures quoted in the update are based on unaudited management accounts which are subject to review and further adjustments, for example in the areas of pensions, investment property valuation and taxation.

 

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