Vistry Group (LON: VTY), the housebuilder, said it is making progress on the actions set out with its September half-year results, but expects average daily net debt of about £800m in the second half. The trading update was released at 7am today, before the market opened.
The shares were at 288p by 8.11am, down 0.69% from yesterday’s close of 290p, on a delayed quote. That is 61% below the closing high of 736.8p set on 11 February and 33% above the closing low of 217.2p on 8 October.
Robert Allen is interim chief financial officer, and Helen Miles will join as CFO in 2027. Vistry has agreed a £350m SAHP grant agreement with Homes England, and well-progressed transactions to reshape its land bank are due to complete before year end.
Chief executive Adam Daniels addressed the cost side of the plan, which includes cutting the number of operating regions from 25 to 12. The new structure is operational from January.
We have also started the difficult but necessary process of reducing headcount and restructuring the operating regions from 25 to 12.
Adam Daniels, Vistry chief executive
Vistry said current trading reflects a challenging Open Market backdrop, with affordability constraints and cautious consumer sentiment. Partner Funded activity is building slowly but gradually, as grant deployment under the Social and Affordable Housing Programme is at an early stage. Vistry described the Open Market as similar to September, with pricing and incentives set site by site.
The debt picture is the pressure point. Vistry said the £800m average for the second half reflects the market backdrop and a limited number of Partner Funded transactions moving to later in the fourth quarter. It expects year-end net debt within the range of analyst forecasts, £(7)m to £(130)m, excluding analysts who have not updated since the half-year results. It has started refinancing its £900m term loan and revolving credit facility. It also reported good progress on £50m of savings in FY27, though market conditions leave some timing uncertainty in the fourth quarter.
On policy, Vistry said it was encouraged by the “Your First Home” initiative but expects some near-term first-time buyer uncertainty. It also welcomed the October Budget announcement of zero-rate VAT on land sold to Registered Providers from April 2027.
Its forward order book stands at £3.1bn on a revised definition. Revised contracting criteria put commercial terms, cash and returns ahead of volumes.