Dublin's Cairn Homes mulls funding options

Cairn Homes is considering a range of funding options — including a further equity raise — in order to meet expansion opportunities.

On the back of the publication of its first set of annual results as a publicly-quoted company, the Dublin-based housebuilder yesterday said it was assessing strategic opportunities and considering funding options, such as additional debt financing, joint ventures and equity funding; in that regard.

No timeframe for additional funding announcements was given, however.

Cairn became the first Irish housebuider in 20 years to float, when it listed on the London Stock Exchange last June — raising over €440 million in the process.

In all, the company raised €642m last year when a €150m senior debt facility, with AIB, and a follow on share placing, which raised €52.1m, are taken into account.

Yesterday’s results show a maiden year pre-tax loss of €37.52m; but revenues of €3.72m.

The loss was driven by exceptional costs — €2.9m of which related to the acquisition of Cairn Homes Holdings (formerly Emerley Holdings), which was purchased as part of last year’s IPO, and €29.1m in relation to a once-off accounting charge.

Cairn has spent around €554m, to date, which has seen it amass a total landbank of 25 sites with the potential to develop more than 11,000 houses; nearly 90% of which are based in and around Dublin.

A vast chunk of that spend went on buying (along with US private equity firm Lone Star) the ‘Project Clear’ loan book from Ulster Bank which will provide it with the largest residential landbank in Ireland and 20% of the available residentially zoned land in the greater Dublin area.

Around 3,000 new houses were built in Dublin last year; considerably less than an estimated requirement of 8,000-10,000. Cairn plans to build around 1,000 new units per year by 2019.

“We are currently building in Parkside, North Dublin and Killiney, South Dublin.

"We will commence construction on five further schemes within the next 12 months and look forward to making a meaningful contribution to the much needed supply of quality new homes in Ireland over the coming years,” said chief executive, Michael Stanley.

Customer feedback has been positive regarding its debut Parkside development in north Dublin, with 52 houses now sale agreed up from 40 in November.

Cairn had net debt of around €30m as of the end of last year.