Berkeley Group is set to increase its returns to shareholders by around £455m over the next two years, to total £1bn.
The residential developer has already promised more than £500m to shareholders over the same period. Under its existing programme, returns of £125m were due to be made by 31 March (£155m already having been made), and £280m in each of the following financial years.
Under today’s proposals, approximately £500m will be returned to shareholders via a share scheme in March, and a further £500m to shareholders in March 2021.
After this, the company plans to revert to making annual returns of £280m through either share buy-backs or dividends.
The company has also pledged to increase the production and delivery of new homes by 50% over the next six years.
This is underpinned by 25 large residential-led, regeneration schemes. It has begun construction on 20 of these over the past 18 months.
Berkeley stated that the company is targeting the delivery of £3.3bn of pretax profit during the six-year period to 30 April 2025, with the profit in any one year ranging between £500m and £700m.
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