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Earnings rise as Travelex battles back

By Daily Mail Reporter
Updated: 04:18 EDT, 22 March 2011

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Travelex boss Peter Jackson refused to be drawn on whether private equity owner Apax is keen to cash out with a float, but he hailed a 9% jump in underlying earnings as evidence of the firm's resilience.

Bureau de change foreign currency, Travelex

Resilience: Earnings boost came despite challenging global market conditions

Clearly sensitive about accusations that borrowings are too high, he will use half the proceeds of a £290m sale of its pre-paid card division to reduce debt.

That won't make much of a dent in its £922m bank loans, which have seen Travelex labelled as yet another private equity-backed deal that is too heavily geared.

It also owes £767m to shareholders and that interest bill is being rolled up for a later date.

However, underlying earnings before interest and nasties rose by 9% to £130.6m last year, the second-best performance in the firm's 34-year history. After charges it made a £60m loss, better than the £165m in 2009.

The improvement came despite 'challenging global market conditions', including the ash cloud in Europe.

The firm, which has 950 stores in 24 countries, said staff working at its 50 stores in Japan are all safe and well.

Apax, which owns a 56% stake, bought the business from founder Lloyd Dorfman in 2005. He still owns 26% and Standard Chartered (up 29p to 1625p) 7.6%.

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