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Bovis Homes is outperforming its planned growth strategy according to its chief executive, after it reported a 48 per cent rise in pre-tax profits in 2013.
David Ritchie said he did not expect the group to be at this level of profit and return by 2013, but it had benefited from improved market conditions that put it a year ahead of expectations.
However, the chief executive stressed that market improvements, supported by government schemes such as Help to Buy, were not the sole reason for the company's accelerated growth.
Mr Ritchie said: "Unless you invest in more land than you are using up, you don't grow... It may well be that the market is giving us [sustained growth] but you have to make sure that you have a strategy that is giving you that growth anyway and take the market benefit on top. "
Bovis Homes' cash equivalents [readily convertible cash] halved in in the year to 31 December 2013 to £12.03m from £24.4m in 2012, as a result of its increased land investment.
Mr Ritchie said that without...