Bellway p.l.c. (BWY) Q4 2025 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

We had a good performance last year. Volume was up by over 14% to 8,749 homes. Operating margin increased to 10.9% and that drove a strong increase in operating profit to £303 million. And you can see that we are well positioned with land and outlets for FY26. Now, along with our usual financial and operational detail today, Shane will also set out our new capital allocation framework, which is central to our approach to drive assets harder in a more challenging environment. But firstly, I think it's important to provide some context with regard to recent training. Trading since the start of April has been slower and never really recovered from the levels that we enjoyed in Q1 of this calendar year. Sales rates over the past six months have tended to hover between 0.5 and 0.6 per outlet. That said, the order book is still in good shape. We're well placed to have both a decent half year and achieve our four-year guided volume of 9,200 homes. And to complement that growth, there is further opportunity for the business. We have a sharper focus on return on cattle employed and being more capital efficient. And regardless of that trading backdrop, given our well-invested land bank and WIPP position, Bellway have the ability to increase cash generation and returns to our shareholders. And our confidence is reflected in our announcement today to commence a share buyback starting with an initial £150 million. In summary, I would describe our business as being very robust and well placed. but we must be mindful of the softer market conditions. And if the government are serious about growth and delivering more homes in this Parliament, then that ambition needs to be reflected in the November budget. Now, I'll provide more detail on Ops and Outlook later, but first, our financi...