Cairn reports full-year pretax loss on revenues of €3.7m

Listed-Irish housebuilder Cairn Homes has reported a pretax loss before exceptional items of €5.5 million on revenues of €3.7 million for 2015.

Due to exceptional items linked to the company’s founder share scheme, the full-year loss was €37.2 million. Gross profits totalled €702,000.

The company, which recorded the largest Irish-related IPO last year when it made its £400 million debut on the London Stock Exchange in June, said it raised in excess of €642 million in 2015. of which €554 million has now been deployed.

In December, the company announced the acquisition of the Project Clear loan portfolio at a cost of €378 million, which it said would provide the group with access to the largest residential land-bank available in Ireland. In addition, a further nine sites, equating to 1,916 units, have been acquired since November 2014, including the purchase of two lots in Cherrywood for €21.5 million from Hines earlier this month.

Cairn said in November it remains confident of achieving it target of 1,000 unit sales by 2019 even though the supply-demand imbalance in the housing market here has become more acute in recent months.

The company said as a result of its activity to date, it now has a core land-bank portfolio consisting of 25 separate sites, with the potential to develop in excess of 11,000 units, of which 89 per cent would be located in Dublin and the city’s commuter belt. Construction is to commence on one of the company’s prime sites - Marianella in Rathgar - shortly.

Cairn, which became the first Irish homebuilder to float on the stock market since McInerney Holdings in 1997, was set up in 2014. It is chaired by former KBC Bank Ireland boss John Reynolds. It was founded by Scottish accountant Alan McIntosh and Michael Stanley, the company's chief executive.

“Following the successful acquisition of the Project Clear loan portfolio and the nine other individual sites acquisitions since our IPO, the company now has access to an exceptionally well located and well-priced core land bank of in excess of 11,000 units,” said Cairn chief executive Michael Stanley.

“We are currently building in Parkside, north Dublin and Killiney, south Dublin. We will commence construction on five further schemes within the next twelve months and look forward to making a meaningful contribution to the much needed supply of quality new homes in Ireland over the coming years,” he added.