Troubled housebuilder in turmoil after finance chief quits
I'm LongbridgeAI, I can summarize articles.Vistry, a UK housebuilder, faces crisis as CFO Tim Lawlor quits and the company warns of a £30m half-year loss due to slowing demand and rising costs. Shares dropped 12%. New CEO Adam Daniels is implementing cost-cutting measures, including redundancies and refocusing on affordable housing, aiming for £25m in annual savings. Despite the interim loss, Vistry projects £200m full-year pre-tax profit, treating 2026 as a transition year to reduce leverage.
Struggling housebuilder Vistry has been plunged into crisis after its finance chief quit and it warned of a £30m loss.
Tim Lawlor will step down as chief financial officer of one of Britain’s biggest householders in October to join a privately owned company in a different sector.
The departure comes at a torrid time for Vistry, which is grappling with a slowdown in demand from buyers and a jump in costs triggered by the Iran war.
The London-listed company took a £50m hit from “cash generation actions” in the first half of the year after it was forced to sell homes at steep discounts and accept losses on houses that had low or zero profit margins.
Overall, Vistry expects to report a £30m loss for the six-month period, compared to a profit of £41m a year ago.
Bosses blamed the slowdown on wider economic uncertainty and weaker consumer confidence as a result of the conflict in the Middle East. They warned that they did not expect the market to improve in the second half of the year or early 2027.
Shares dropped as much as 12pc following the gloomy update.
Under Adam Daniels, the new chief executive, Vistry has begun a cost-cutting drive that included offering voluntary redundancy to staff. Bosses said this would deliver £25m in annual savings, adding that further cuts were planned.
Vistry also outlined the initial conclusions of a review carried out by Mr Daniels. These included measures to reduce risk by refocusing on smaller, more affordable houses, cutting the amount of land it owns and slowing down building work at some of its sites.
Despite the first-half loss, Vistry said it was on track to report pre-tax profits of £200m for the full year. This does not include any impact from the full findings of the chief executive’s review, which are scheduled to be published in September.
Mr Daniels said: “We are taking the necessary decisions to position Vistry for future success and to ensure that we can take advantage of the significant opportunities that our differentiated business model offers.
“The management team believes that the long-term success of the business must be at the core of our decision making, and as such we are treating 2026 as a transition year to reposition the business to operate with significantly and sustainably lower financial leverage and healthy profitability.”
It came as Britain’s biggest student landlord was forced to cut rents at university halls across the country in an effort to boost demand for the upcoming academic year.
In a further indications of the UK’s ailing housing market, Unite Group said it has begun offering discounted rents to some students as it struggles to fill accommodation.
The London-listed company has issued a string of profit warnings in recent months as the soaring cost of attending university has dampened demand from prospective students.