Retirement home builder McCarthy & Stone warns it will make an annual loss as pandemic hits sales
Britain’s biggest builder of retirement homes has warned it will make an annual loss as the coronavirus crisis hits sales.
McCarthy & Stone said revenues had fallen from £725million to about £197million in the year to October 31.
The company, which is set to be taken over by US buyout firm Lone Star, said elderly customers are ‘cautious’ about moving.
Britain’s biggest builder of retirement homes McCarthy & Stone said revenues had fallen from £725m to about £197m in the year to October 31
It expected to make a loss ‘in line with board expectations’, which it did not provide. Analysts predicted it will sink £63.7million into the red.
The slump comes as the rest of the housing sector experiences a mini-boom. The company’s average customer is aged 79, and reservations in the fourth quarter were 40 per cent below a year ago.
It comes as Lone Star and McCarthy are urging shareholders to back the firm’s takeover bid.
Only Anchorage, the biggest investor with 17.1 per cent has declared support so far.
The deal needs 75 per cent support from shareholders to go through and would trigger the de-listing of McCarthy from the London Stock Exchange.
Lone Star has offered 115p per share. McCarthy’s stock fell 0.3 per cent, or 0.4p, at 115.8p.