LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Automotive retailer Vertu Motors said on Tuesday that it was still on track to meet full-year expectations despite posting weaker revenues for the five months ended 31 January.

Vertu anticipates that its trading performance for the year ended 29 February will be "in line" with overall expectations, with like-for-like revenue growth of 5.4%.

Increased margins for the year as a whole also helped the AIM-listed group to record growth in operating profits.

Vertu said group revenues dropped 2.7% in the five months to the end of January, with used retail car sales declining 3.1% and new car sales falling 9.9%. However, Vertu said it had delivered strong growth of 13.6% in fleet car sales volumes, significantly outperforming the market.

Chief executive Robert Forrester said: "I am pleased to report that the board expects the trading performance for the group to be in line with its overall expectations. This result has been achieved through the deployment of discipline, hard work and sector-leading systems.

"Scale will become an increasingly important success factor as the sector evolves and the current pipeline of potential acquisition opportunities is strong, with our robust balance sheet only being deployed after rigorous capital allocation testing."

As of 1320 GMT, Vertu shares were up 4.55% at 32.41p.

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