Winton Land Limited (NS) Analysis

Overview

To date, Winton’s primary business has been developing and selling ‘lots’ of residential land. In some cases, Winton also provides land and building packages, where Winton contracts with specialist builders to provide a home on the land it is selling. Similarly, where the market or site dictates, Winton develops apartment buildings as part of its masterplanned developments.

Performance

The following information was extracted from Winton Land Limited's Full Year Results, released 23 August 2024

Winton (NZX: WIN / ASX: WTN) is pleased to release its full-year results for the period ending 30 June 2024 (FY24) with revenue of $173.6 million, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of $29.5 million and profit after tax of $15.7 million.

During FY24, Winton’s longstanding pre-sale strategy served it well with 345 settlements. These were skewed slightly to the second half, with 187 units settled, compared to 158 units in the first half of FY24. This compares to 565 units in FY23, where the development and construction project timeline led to an exceptional year of delivery.

Chris Meehan, Chair and CEO of Winton said: “The financial results don’t capture the resilience and progress that Winton made during FY24. Despite a difficult market and very challenging economic conditions, we have continued to deliver pre-sold properties, complete new projects and diversify our revenue streams. This steadfastness is a testament to Winton’s commitment and ability to weather market fluctuations.”

“Even with a slow market and challenging economic conditions, Winton finished the year with a landbank yield of c6,000 units, cash holdings of $41.7 million and a solid pre-sale book that has increased in the weeks after the end of the financial year to $411.7 million as at 23 August 2024.”

Similar to the decline reported in the half-year FY24 results, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of $29.5 million and profit after tax of $15.7 million were down 69.1% from $95.6 million and 75.6% from $64.6 million respectively in FY23. The decrease is attributable to the lower number of settlements, higher cost of sales per unit from a higher percentage of built product, a $1.7 million fair value loss in FY24 compared to a $6.8 million gain in FY23, higher administration expenses from the establishment and operation of Ayrburn, and an abnormal one-off tax adjustment associated with a change in tax deductibility. This was slightly offset by lower selling expenses from selling fewer units, higher interest income, and lower current and deferred tax as a result of the above.