Watkin Jones shares fall as 'challenging market backdrop' continues

Residential property management firm Watkin Jones saw its share price drop sharply on Thursday after reporting that transactional activity "remains slow" following a big drop in revenues in its first half.

Against a backdrop of "continuing limited transactional liquidity in the market", the group reported revenues of £129.2m over the six months to 31 March, down 26% from £175.1m the year before.

Adjusted pre-tax profits fell to just £0.2m, compared with a profit of £3.4m previously, though statutory results showed a pre-tax loss of £0.9m, down from a profit of £2.1m before, due to a £1.1m exceptional finance cost related to the unwinding of the discount rate on a Building Safety provision.

No interim dividend was paid as the board decided to "prioritis[e] the maintenance of financial flexibility", it said.

Chief executive Alex Pease said results were in line with the company's expectations "despite the continuing challenging market backdrop, as a result of our focus on operational delivery, cost management and cash generation".

He continued: "Whilst transactional activity remains slow and subject to a continuing volatile market backdrop, we are focussed on ensuring that the group remains in the best position to exploit opportunities as conditions improve."

Shares were 11.6% lower at 31.6p by 0837 BST.