A Cheshire-headquartered land promoter has hailed the "pleasing level of profit" it achieved in the year before its £250m takeover by Barratt Developments.
Newly-filed accounts for Gladman Developments have revealed its financial performance for the year before the deal with the housing giant was announced at the end of January.
The business has operated as a stand-alone firm and has continued to be led by its management team.
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According to the newly-filed accounts, Gladman Developments' pre-tax profits dipped from £6.9m to £2.1m in the 12 months to the end of March 2022.
However, its turnover increased from £29.8m to £39.7m over the same period.
A statement signed off by the board said: "Considering the backdrop of the Covid pandemic at the beginning of the financial year, trading through the period has resulted in a pleasing level of profit which the directors feel is a solid result in light of challenging market conditions.
"Achieved land sales values remain strong due to housebuilder demand and a shortage of new planning permissions being granted.
"Several contracted land sales, that have been on the books for several years, completed in the year.
"The land values achieved on these sites are not representative of current market conditions and explain the reduced margins.
"Several factors resulting from the acquisition also affected margin. The commercial property portfolio was sold which, due to carrying values, provided little profit.
"In addition, pre-paid costs associated with the debt facility were released on acquisition. Proceeds from the sale were used to pay off all external debt.
"A key indicator of the future performance of the business is in the number of sites within our portfolio and this has been maintained with 328 sites (326 last year).
"This provides c.10 years' worth of sales based on past performance and with a wide geographical spread enables the business to quickly react to local planning needs."
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