Unaudited trading update y/e 31 March 2024

Flagship Finance PLC

29 May 2024

 

Flagship Housing Group Limited ('Flagship'), the parent company of Flagship Finance Plc and a Registered Provider of Social Housing that owns and manages 33,356 homes in the east of England, announces its unaudited trading highlights for the year ended 31 March 2024 ('FY24').

FY24 has been a strong year which some excellent highlights including:

·    Net profit for the year of £61m, up from £49m in FY23;

·    Robust financial performance underpinned by 1% year-on-year turnover growth to £252.9m (FY23: £250.2m) but with social housing lettings income increasing by 5% to c.72%;

·    Despite continued cost pressure during the year, operating surplus up 19% to £93.6m;

·    Delivered an operating margin, including gain on disposal, of c.37% (FY23: 32%);

·    Subject to completion of extensive internal and external surveys we expect to need to increase our 'one-off' provision for building remediation work at a property in Suffolk by c.£2m, not yet included in the above performance figures;

·    Delivered 694 new affordable homes, up from 634 affordable homes in FY23;

·    Arrears finished the year at 3.5%, another year-on-year improvement, and void loss was in line with our target for the year of 0.9%;

·    Year-end cash of £40m and immediately available liquidity of £234m;

·    Our Tenant Satisfaction Measure ('TSM') score ended the year at 72% overall satisfaction on our rented homes and 58% on shared ownership homes;

·    Loan covenant position has substantially improved year-on-year ending the year with c.£20m operating surplus headroom on our tightest interest cover covenant; and

·    A2 (stable) credit rating.

Jonathan McManus, Flagship Group's CFO, said: "We are immensely proud of our financial health and operational achievements this year. Our focus on efficiency and quality has paid off, and we continue to reinvest our profits to improve the lives of our tenants.

We are grateful to our dedicated teams and partners who contributed to these achievements. As we look forward to the coming year, we remain committed to providing homes and creating sustainable communities.

We are focussed on improving our repair service performance to ensure that works are carried out in a timely manner, our tenants' needs are met and our assets are maintained to high levels of safety and thermal comfort."

 

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