27 Oct 2011 07:00
The Go-Ahead Group plc 6th Floor, 1 Warwick Row, London SW1E 5ERTelephone 020 7821 3939 Facsimile 020 7821 3938 |
Press Release
27 October 2011
THE GO-AHEAD GROUP PLC
("GO-AHEAD" OR "THE GROUP")
INTERIM MANAGEMENT STATEMENT
ROBUST TRADING FOR FIRST QUARTER;FULL YEAR EXPECTATIONS UNCHANGED
Go-Ahead today announces its Interim Management Statement for the period from 3 July 2011 to 26 October 2011.
Overall:
Trading in the first quarter has been robust and our expectations for the full year to 30 June 2012 remain unchanged.
David Brown, Group Chief Executive of Go-Ahead, said:
"I am pleased to report growth across all our businesses. A range of factors, including the quality of our services and high motoring costs for car drivers, has attracted passengers to our services and we continue to perform well.
"Our bus services continue to perform robustly and our efforts to make travel simple and straightforward are being embraced by passengers. We are already witnessing significant take-up of our new smartcards, with over 200,000 passenger journeys a day now taking place using smartcards outside of London.
"Our rail businesses are performing strongly. We are also seeing some interesting passenger trends with our High Speed services in Kent and the Gatwick Express showing good growth - demonstrating that passengers want to use fast rail links.
"While we are encouraged by our performance in the first quarter, we remain suitably cautious about the medium term wider economic outlook."
Bus:
Outside London, our operations have remained resilient with the majority of growth coming from fare paying, rather than concessionary passengers, which has helped drive deregulated revenue up by over 4%. Passenger numbers are consistent with the same quarter last year.
In London, revenues are marginally up, with reductions in QIC bonus payments due to road works in central London, being largely offset by additional contract work. As expected, mileage was slightly down compared to the equivalent period last year but will increase as new contract wins, highlighted at the year end, begin in the second quarter.
During the period, the Competition Commission issued its provisional remedies in response to its inquiry into the UK local bus market. No fundamental changes to the structure of the bus market are proposed.
Rail:
Our rail division operates the Southern (including Gatwick Express), Southeastern and London Midland franchises through our 65% owned subsidiary Govia.
All three franchises performed well. Southern achieved a passenger revenue increase of around 8% in the quarter and passenger journeys were up approximately 3%. In Southeastern, passenger revenue growth was almost 9% and passenger journeys were around 2% above the same period last year. Our smallest franchise, London Midland, saw passenger revenue growth of over 12% and an increase in passenger numbers of around 9%.
Outlook:
While we are encouraged by our performance in the first quarter, our expectations for the full year to 30 June 2012 remain unchanged as we continue to be suitably cautious about the medium term wider economic outlook.
We continue to emphasise service quality. Our balance sheet and cashflow generation are strong and we remain focused on cost reduction and maintaining financial discipline.
ENDSFor further information, please contact:
The Go-Ahead Group | |
David Brown, Group Chief Executive | 020 7821 3920 |
Keith Down, Group Finance Director | 020 7821 3922 |
John Shield, Group Corporate Affairs Director | 020 7821 3927 |
Holly Birch, Investor Relations Manager | 07837 612 661 |
Citigate Dewe Rogerson | 020 7638 9571 |
Michael Berkeley | |
Chris Barrie | |
Angharad Couch
|
David Brown, Group Chief Executive and Keith Down, Group Finance Director will be hosting a conference call for analysts at 7.45am today. Please dial 0800 634 5205. A replay facility will be available for seven days.
GO-AHEAD
Go-Ahead is a leading UK public transport operator, providing high quality services in the bus and rail sectors. Employing around 22,000 people across the country, over one billion passenger journeys are undertaken on our services each year. We are committed to operating our companies in a safe, socially and environmentally responsible way and are proud to have been awarded the Carbon Trust Standard after taking action on climate change. In addition to the travelling public, our customers include the Department for Transport, Transport for London (TfL) and local authorities.
BUS
Go-Ahead is one of the UK's largest bus operators. With a fleet of around 3,900 buses, we carry, on average, around 1.7 million passengers every day. Our operations are focused on high density commuter markets. We have a strong presence in London, with around 21% market share, where we provide regulated services for TfL. We operate deregulated services in Oxford, East Anglia, the South East, Southern and North East England. We also have a yellow school bus joint venture in North America.
RAIL
Our rail division operates the Southern (including Gatwick Express), Southeastern and London Midland franchises through our 65% owned subsidiary Govia. It is the busiest rail operation in the UK, responsible for nearly 30% of all UK passenger rail journeys. In December 2009, Southeastern began operating the UK's first high speed domestic rail service between Kent and London, significantly reducing journey times.
Legal disclaimer
Certain statements included in this press release contain forward-looking information concerning the Group's strategy, operations, financial performance or condition, outlook, growth opportunities or circumstances in the sectors or markets in which the Group operates. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve uncertainty because they depend of future circumstances, and relate to events, not all of which are within the Company's control or can be produced by the Company. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, no assurance can be given that such expectations will prove to have been correct. Actual results could differ materially from those set out in the forward-looking statements. Nothing in this press release should be construed as a profit forecast and no part of these results constitutes, or shall be taken to constitute, an invitation or inducement to invest in The Go-Ahead Group plc or any other entity, and must not be relied upon in any way in connection with any investment decision. Except as required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement.