16th Feb 2015 10:00
LONDON (Alliance News) - Tour and cruise operator All Leisure Group PLC Monday said its losses narrowed in its last financial year, despite taking a hit from political unrest in Ukraine and Egypt, which hit sales of its packaged holidays and cruises to those regions.
The group reported a pretax loss of GBP7.2 million for the financial year to end-October, compared with a GBP13.6 million loss the year before, even though revenue fell by 2.3% to GBP138.9 million, down from GBP142.1 million last year.
During the year the group recognised a GBP445,000 gain on derivative contracts, compared with a GBP4.3 million loss the year before. Lower selling and administrative expenses and depreciation also helped the group's losses narrow.
"The sale of the loss-making mv Discovery vessel in October was a significant step forward in de-risking the business and positioning the group for improved future profitability," the company said in a statement.
All Leisure said its earnings took a GBP1.9 million hit from the political unrest in Crimea and Ukraine.
"This issue caused three key cruises to be re-scheduled, causing customer cancellations and heavy discounting to achieve occupancy levels on these cruises" the company said.
Meanwhile, the political situation in Egypt also hit the group's tour operating performance, causing sales of its Discover Egypt brand to fall by GBP1.2 million in the year.
Total passengers fell by 5%, hit by political events in Egypt, but rose 1% on a like-for-like basis, excluding the group's European River Cruise charter programme and Discover Egypt. On a like-for-like basis, cruise passengers were up 10% and tour passengers down 2% in the year. It said average revenue per passengers grew 2.7% to GBP2,410 in the year.
"The outlook for 2015 remains challenging, as the UK economy continues its slow recovery. The rationalisation work that has been carried out over the last few years will continue to benefit the results, as we have a leaner cost base and a more focused organisation. Lower fuel prices will also help the group to contain its cots," the company said.
All Leisure said the currency outlook is a "mixed picture" for the current financial year, citing a weaker euro as a demand booster for its European Tours, but a strong sterling as bad news for its US Tour destinations.
"The current strength of the US dollar against sterling is expected to make our popular US Tour destinations less attractive to UK consumers and will impact dollar-denominated fuel and destination costs," it said.
All Leisure shares were up 1.4% at 25.34 pence Monday morning.
By Rowena Harris-Doughty; [email protected]; @rharrisdoughty
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