MAR Mar City

TIDMMAR

RNS Number : 3145D

Mar City PLC

28 January 2015

MAR CITY PLC

('Mar City', the 'Group' or the 'Company')

Trading Update

Mar City (AIM: MAR.L), the London/South East and Midlands focused housebuilder, today provides a trading update ahead of its final results for the year ended 31 December 2014, which will be released in March 2015.

Summary

-- Profit before tax for the year to 31 December 2014 in line with market expectations and more than three fold the previous year.

-- 2014 was transformational period for Mar City with the highly successful launch of its modular technology:

o Manufacturing partner for modular homes and construction infrastructure fully operational.

o Mar City, through its manufacturing partner, now has capability to build up to 1,000 modular units per annum.

o Site acquisitions mean that the Group's land bank is now at around 5,000 plots which can provide in the region of five years supply with a gross development value of approximately GBP1 billion.

   --    Increasing demand from Housing Associations and Local Authorities for new build homes. 

-- Increasing open market sales in Midlands and London markets continue to benefit from Government initiative through the Help to Buy scheme.

Current Trading

Mar City is pleased to confirm that the Company will be reporting significant growth for the year ended 31 December 2014 when it announces final results in March. 2014 was a transformative year for the Company. The achievements during the last 12 months are testament to the collective efforts of everyone at Mar City, particularly in the successful launch of Mar City's new modular build apartments and houses which have received much critical acclaim. As a result of the momentum this has provided and the very strong overall trading conditions in the UK new build market, the Company is pleased to report that profit before tax for the year to 31 December 2014 will be in line with market forecasts, anticipated to be more than three times higher than the prior year.

During 2014 Mar City's launches of its new modular-built apartments in London and modular-built houses in the Midlands were highly successful and widely acclaimed. Since the launches last year, Mar City has been delighted to see a very strong response from customers including both from Housing Associations and Local Authorities. As a result the Company is now in discussions with a number of parties regarding potential joint venture new build developments. Furthermore, we continue to experience an equally excellent response to new open market sales and on-going enquiries.

Mar City's current production capability (with its exclusive manufacturing partner) will allow the Group to build up to 1,000 modular homes per annum. The Group is also developing plans to augment this production capacity through the construction of Mar City's first proprietary production plant during the current year.

Finally, Mar City is developing further training programmes to bring additional personnel, often initially non-skilled, to work with skilled trades in our business as well as introducing a structured programme for apprentices. These initiatives will help to create new jobs in the locality and also provide the Company with a degree of protection against the prevailing rising input costs in the building sector.

Tony Ryan, Chief Executive of Mar City plc, said: "The last year has been transformational for Mar City as we successfully launched our new modular technology. We now have a strong pipeline where we are in discussions with a number of potential joint venture partners and we are also developing plans to increase our home building capacity through the development of our own production facilities. We have a strong land bank with in the region of five years supply with planning permission.

"During 2015 we see a larger proportion of Mar City new homes built using our modular technology, and as demand increases we will match our production capabilities alongside that growth.

"We continue to see strong demand as a result of the Help to Buy initiative in each of our core markets in London/South East and the Midlands, where it is a particularly good match with the excellent quality and sustainability that Mar City new homes afford our customers.

"We look forward to achieving further growth in the current year as we continue to provide award winning new homes in London/South East and the Midlands."

Ends.

 
 Enquiries: 
 
 Mar City PLC                        www.marcityplc.com   www.marcityhomes.com 
 Tony Ryan, Chief Executive                               +44 (0) 20 7408 1102 
 
   Shore Capital, NOMAD and Joint                           www.shorecap.co.uk 
   Broker 
 Pascal Keane / Jamie Cameron                              +44 (0)20 7408 4090 
 
 WH Ireland Limited, Joint Broker                         www.wh-ireland.co.uk 
 Mike Coe                                                 +44 (0) 117 945 3470 
 
 Gable Communications                          marcity@gablecommunications.com 
  John Bick                                               +44 (0) 20 7193 7463 
 

This information is provided by RNS

The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

END

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