The figures cover the 12 months to 31 December 2008.
The performance was a reversal on 2007 when there was a pre-tax profit of ВЈ32m on turnover of ВЈ130m, representing a remarkable profit margin of close on 25%.
The net worth of the group finished the period at ВЈ77m, a fall of ВЈ26m.
The net cash outflow from operating activities ran to ВЈ9m, following an outflow of ВЈ1m in 2007.
The decrease in cash for the year was ВЈ21m, after a ВЈ22m decrease the previous year.
Things could have been worse with the house building group pointing out: “Our policy of not following the market into the provision of large numbers of apartments in urban areas but concentrating on all-new homes has protected the group from the worst effect of the market disturbance.”
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Last year’s hit was magnified by the effect of £23m-worth of land write-downs and exceptional costs.
Part of the latter was the £1.7m exceptional cost to cover redundancy payments – 20% of staff were laid off in August 2008.
Croudace Homes completed the sale of 350 dwellings, a drop of 10% from 390 sold in 2007.
The house builder closed its final salary scheme to new members in 1994 and the winding up process commenced during 2007.
The directors said: “Progress was made during the year and it is hoped that the winding up will be complete in 2009.”
There was a £7m charge in 2007 which was linked to the “curtailment of the defined benefit pension scheme”
Market pressures have not lessened the group’s ability to hand out dividends to its shareholders, however, and after passing over £1.3m in 2007 the dividend figure doubled to £2.6m last year.
