British housebuilder Barratt Developments says it will not pay a final dividend after reporting a 68% fall in annual pre-tax profits. It warned that the market remained difficult.
'There is little prospect for any material improvement in trading conditions until mortgage finance and customer confidence return,' chief executive Mark Clare said. He said that in the meantime, the company had successfully refinanced its business.
Barratt made a pre-tax profit before exceptional items of £137.3m in the year to the end of June. This came after the group wrote off £208.4m from its £3.3 billion land bank to reflect the poor state of the property market.
The group said forward sales at the end of June were £698m, compared with £1.4 billion in 2007. By the end of August forward sales had increased to £783m.
