Belvoir YTD trading ahead of pre-Covid expectations

British property franchise Belvoir said on Wednesday that trading in the ten months ended 31 October had been ahead of its pre-Covid expectations.

Belvoir stated that both its property and financial services divisions had achieved year-on-year gross profit growth of 10% and 11%, respectively.

Management services fee income from lettings was up on 2019, while MSF from sales was level, with the impacts of Covid-19 lockdowns in the second quarter being mitigated by the group's acquisition of Lovelle's franchise network and a "strong recovery" in the sales market in the second half.

The AIM-listed firm added that its pipeline of agreed house sales was "significantly ahead" of the previous record level - meaning that whilst its pipeline was slower to process than usual, franchisees were expected to report strong sales revenue during the last two months of 2020.

Belvoir also intends to pay a further catch-up dividend of 1.3p per share to coincide with its final 2020 dividend, bringing the total reinstated 2019 dividend to 3.3p per share.

Chief executive Dorian Gonsalves said: "This year has demonstrated beyond doubt the incredible resilience of our franchise business model.

"In what has been a rollercoaster of a year for Belvoir, the group has performed well across both divisions."

As of 0820 GMT, Belvoir shares had surged 10.11% to 156.90p.