Finance boss goes as Vistry says it will rack up £30m first half loss and daily debt level hits £800m

Vistry said it expects to rack up a first half pre-tax loss of £30m, announced it was looking for a new finance boss and that its daily net debt level has climbed to £800m in the first six months of the year.

In an unscheduled trading update this morning, the firm said the loss for the six months to the end of June would come after a £50m hit from actions including heavier discounts on slower-selling homes, asset sales and reductions to its landbank.

The group’s first half was also affected by fewer deals with housing association partners, delays to land sales and higher finance costs.

Vistry said that excluding these costs it would have made a “modest” £20m – down from the £41m profit it made in the first half last year.

The group’s new boss, Adam Daniels, has announced a review of the business, the details of which will be announced in September.

But the firm said that its recently announced voluntary exit scheme, as well as “a focus on implementing the right recruitment controls in the right areas”, would produce annual savings of £25m from next year.

It added the review, the results of which will be unveiled on 24 September when the firm reveals its interim results, will also concentrate more on the regions “ensuring that future development activity is focused on specific sites and relationships that are best suited to our business model”.

Details of the expected pre-tax loss come as Vistry said its chief financial officer Tim Lawlor will be stepping down in October.

The firm said Lawlor, who has been with the company more than four years, is going to “pursue a CFO role in a different sector”.

Vistry also said that its average daily net debt climbed to £799m in the first half – up from £695m last time – while net debt hit £470m at the end of June, up from £293m last time.

Around 6,100 home sales were completed during the period, down from 6,889 a year earlier, while average discounts on private sales rose to 7.1% from 1.4%.

Vistry said it had more than halved the value of unsold private homes under construction to below £300m and further reduced land buying during the second quarter.

But it said that despite weaker conditions, which it put down to lower consumer confidence following the Middle East conflict, it still expected to end 2026 with net cash of more than £100m and is targeting average daily debt of below £650m in the second half.

In a note, broker Investec said: “[The update] confirms a very weak H1 profit outcome as the Group focuses on cash. Average net debt is higher but is expected to decline in H2, reflecting the lagged impact of actions already taken. Full year consensus PBT [profit before tax] is expected to be in line with consensus expectations but the CEO is undertaking a review which is expected to result in further one-off profit impacts, with the timing, quantum and exceptional or recurring uncertain.

“The update provides more information and confirms expectations for H1 and full year outcomes, but there are lots of caveats and uncertainties around the impact of the CEO review and the trading backdrop in H2, with many unanswered questions remaining. We expect that market will await for more information from the September update.”