Firms benefit from property market rise

A SURGE in property transactions will benefit housebuilder Persimmon and cooker maker Aga Rangemaster when the pair post results next week.

Earnings at housebuilder Persimmon are expected to reflect the resurgent property market when it posts half-year results on Tuesday.

The group, which trades as Charles Church and Westbury Partnerships, is expected to report pre-tax profit up by almost half to £196 million compared to a year ago as it sold more homes and raised prices, according to analysts at Deutsche Bank – though the profits rise would only be 2.7 per cent on the previous six months.

In a trading update last month the FTSE 100 listed housebuilder said sale completions jumped almost 28 per cent year-on-year to 6,408 homes during the period, while its average selling price lifted 4 per cent to £186,000.

Brokers at Numis expect Leamington Spa-based Aga Rangemaster to swing to a pre-tax profit of £2.3 million, from a £2.4 million loss a year ago on the strength of new ranges launched amid a resurgent property market.

The group said in July that new product ranges had helped orders lift 6 per cent during the last six months, while sales improved by 4 per cent.

Imperial Tobacco’s £4.2 billion acquisition of a batch of US brands will be the main talking point when it presents a trading update on Tuesday.

The Bristol-based business, which owns JPS, Golden Virginia and Lambert & Butler, bought the brands from US rival Reynolds American last month.

The deal boosts Imperial’s market share in the US from 3 pe r cent to 10 per cent

The addition of Winston, Maverick, Kool, Salem and e-cigarette brand blu, takes Imperial from the fifth biggest tobacco firm in the US to the third.