The company is also well backed by its banks, with a new five-year £300m revolving credit facility.
The annual general meeting at York Racecourse today will hear that sales so far this year are up 12% on the same period last year. The order book, including legal completions already achieved this year, now stands at a similar level to last year at £1.14bn.
At the start of the year, the order book was just £565m, down from £638m at the start of 2010. At that time Persimmon said that sales rates had been affected by the uncertainty created by planned government spending cuts and the unusually bad weather during November and December.
In line with strategy, margins and average selling price are both improving, helped by a change in product mix, with more Charles Church homes and traditional family housing.
Completions in 2011 are expected to be a similar number to 2010, with an increase in volume over last year in the second half of 2011.
The company has good liquidity, with 6% gearing, having prepaid its remaining senior loan notes with a face value of £136.4m. The resulting finance cost savings will significantly exceed the initial costs, the company said.
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