Watkin Jones plc
(‘Watkin Jones’ or the ‘Company’)
H1-2025 Trading Update
The Group provides the following trading update for the half year ended 31 March 2025 (the ‘period’ or ‘H1-2025’).
In what remains a challenging market backdrop, management have continued to focus on delivery, cost management and cash generation. Our strong operational focus is expected to result in a small positive operating profit for the period, with good construction delivery on in-build schemes which have traded in line with our stated margin guidance.
As announced during the first half, we signed two development partnerships in the period, both of which have started on site (St Helens new homes and Southwark aparthotel). We continue to actively market and engage with investors on our development opportunities which are attracting good levels of interest. We remain positive on the outlook for our Refresh model and continue to grow this pipeline and that for our development partnerships.
Continued effective cash control means that our cash position remained robust through the period, with gross and net cash at 31 March 2025 of c.£87m (H1 24: £67m) and c.£73m (H1 24: £44m), respectively.
We are monitoring market volatility and conditions closely, in particular those relating to residential transactional liquidity, but our current pipeline continues to provide the potential to deliver an expected stronger second half.