Bovis Homes says December slowdown to hit full-year profit

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LONDON, Dec (Shanghai: 600875.SS - news) 28 (Reuters) - Bovis Homes (Frankfurt: 911164 - news) said it would not deliver the number of houses it originally expected in 2016, after about 180 sales failed to complete before the year end, resulting in a likely miss against market profit forecasts.

The British company said the number of homes built for the year would be lower than previously anticipated at between 3,950 and 4,000 homes, as it experienced slower-than-expected build rates during December.

Profit before tax for year ending Dec. 31 was expected to be within a range of 160 million to 170 million pounds, depending on final volume delivery, up from 160.1 million pounds in 2015, it said.

Analysts were expecting on average profit to be 183 million pounds ($225 million), according to Thomson Reuters (Dusseldorf: TOC.DU - news) data.

Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) in Bovis fell more than 4.0 percent in early trading, making them the biggest faller on the FTSE 250 index.

Rival builders Crest Nicholson (Frankfurt: A1KCZN - news) and Berkeley Group were also hit by Bovis's unscheduled update, and were down 1.7 percent and 1.6 percent.

"We have experienced slower than expected build production across the group's sites during December, resulting in approximately 180 largely built and sold private homes which were expected to complete in 2016 being deferred into early 2017," the company said on Wednesday.

The builder said the average sales price of the homes it completed in 2016 was expected to increase by around 10 percent on 2015's 231,600 pounds, driven by improved mix and increased underlying market pricing.

Britain's property market slowed immediately after the vote in June to leave the European Union, but since then the economy has fared better then most economists expected and house prices have continued to rise. ($1 = 0.8139 pounds) (Reporting by Paul Sandle. Editing by Jane Merriman)