Results round-up
By Digital Look
Date: Wednesday 07 Dec 2016
(ShareCast News) - Train and bus operator Stagecoach has lifted its interim dividend and tried to put the emphasis on the future to keep investors chipper as current profits and earnings fall in the face of what it said was a continuing "challenging and uncertain" political and economic environment.
Management's expectations of full year adjusted earnings per share is "broadly unchanged", with a more cautious view on the short-term revenue outlook for the regional UK bus division, broadly offset by improved forecasts for UK rail as well as finance and tax costs.
Like-for-like revenue for UK bus worsened to a 2.1% decline from the 1.9% in the first quarter, while London buses weakened to a 1.2% decline from 0.9%, while North American buses declines 2.9% LFL and UK rail rose 0.8%.
So for the half-year ended 29 October the outturn for group revenue of £2.0bn was up 1.6% on the same period last year, though operating profit fell 19% to £117m, pre-tax profits by 17% to £100.4m and adjusted earnings per share by 15% to 14.4p.
Citing the positive long-term prospects for the public transport industry, chief executive Martin Griffiths revealed the half-time payout was upped by 8.6% to 3.8p per share.
"We have a growth strategy built on continued investment, value-for-money travel and high customer satisfaction and we have made further significant investments to improve our bus and rail services for customers now and in the future," he said.
Tube manipulation specialist Tricorn Group announced its unaudited interim results for the six months to 30 September on Wednesday, with revenue down to £8.9m, from £10.1m a year earlier.
Adjusted operating profit was £0.19m, up marginally from £0.18m, though its adjusted profit before tax was £4m, down significantly on the £38m reported at the same time last year.
The AIM-traded firm reported adjusted earnings per share of 0.01p, also a serious drop from the 0.11p posted at the interim in the prior year.
On the operational front, Tricorn said its China restructuring was now complete, which the board claimed provided a solid platform for future profitable growth.
"The group has made good progress through the first half of the year when compared to the previous period and the board is encouraged by the new business won," said chairman Andrew Moss.
"Our US and UK businesses have generated increased revenue through increased market share, enabling both of our divisions to improve profitability.
"Adjusted PBT for the period was in line with the board's expectations and we anticipate that full year results will be in line with market expectations."
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