UPDATE 3-Redrow shares up on new debt facility; profit halves

(Adds share price, analyst comment)

By Simon Meads

LONDON, Sept 9 (Reuters) - British housebuilder Redrow Plc (RDW.L) said it had secured a new 450 million pound ($803 million) debt facility to 2011, sending its shares up more than 9 percent.

The company also announced a near halving in annual profit and said it would not pay a final dividend in order to preserve cash following the sharp decline in the housing market, which it expects to remain tough for the foreseeable future.

Redrow said in its results statement on Tuesday that it had agreed a new covenant package appropriate to the current trading environment.

Chief Executive Neil Fitzsimmons told Reuters the effective interest rate on its debt was around 6.5 percent last year, but was probably "going to move up a couple of percent for 2008-09".

Pretax profit before exceptional items was 65.5 million pounds in the year to end-June, down from 121.1 million the year before, on revenues down 22 percent to 650 million pounds.

Redrow said it had reviewed the value of its land and work under progress, resulting in a 259.4 million pound exceptional charge.

In a note to investors, Hargreaves Landsdown analyst Keith Bowman said Redrow had counterbalanced the negative news of landbank writedowns with the good news regarding the negotiation of new banking facilities.

Redrow shares stood 9.1 percent higher at 207 pence at 1030 GMT.

Bowman said the landbank writedown highlights question marks over rival housebuilders and their valuation policies and added: "On the downside, all of the key financial metrics continue to deteriorate, with no obvious catalyst for an imminent recovery of the UK housing market."

The results follow a survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) that said UK house prices kept declining sharply in the three months to August, with home sales per surveyor hitting a new low.

RICS said completed sales were just 12.7 per surveyor, the lowest since the question was first included in the survey in 1978.

LENDING SQUEEZE

Fitzsimmons said he foresees the difficult conditions in the market persisting for some time, adding that issues regarding mortgage liquidity could last through to 2010.