24th Feb 2014 10:42
LONDON (Alliance News) - Cruise and tour operator All Leisure Group PLC Monday said it swung to a huge loss in the financial year ended October 31 2013, despite a 12% increase in revenues, due to heavy writedowns and "one-off" items.
The niche cruise and tour operator specialising in the over-55s market, warned in a trading statement on February 13 that it would report pretax loss of up to GBP14 million for its last financial year as it booked a GBP9.9 million impairment charge for items including the relocation of its head office and a writedown on one of its cruise ships. It also reported a loss on derivative contracts of GBP4.3 million, compared with a GBP1.7 million gain the prior year.
As a result, the group reported a pretax loss of GBP13.6 million the 12 month period, compared with a pretax profit of GBP0.8 million a year earlier, despite a 12% increase in group revenues to GBP142.1 million, boosted by the acquisition of Page & May Travel Group from its Tour Operating division.
The group said trading during the year was hit by a number of operational headwinds, including geo-political tension in its key Egypt market, and technical problems which affected its summer cruise programme.
It said it is confident in delivering a significant improvement in its 2014 financial performance, with Italy, North America and Vietnam performing well so far this year.
"I believe that we are well positioned to address the challenges presented by the current economic climate and geo-political events," said Chairman Roger Allard in the group's full-year results.
The group said it has now successfully integrated its cruise and tour operating businesses within one head office.
All Leisure said its cruise business, reported an underlying operating loss of GBP1.9 million, compared with a loss of GBP6.9 million a year earlier, due to revenue loss on cancelled cruises and reduced capacity.
However, it said this was offset by a continued strong performance from its Tour Operator business, which provides holidays in Egypt to the UK market, generating underlying operating profits of GBP4.1 million in the year, compared with GBP9.1 million the prior year. It said the decrease in performance was due to the inclusion of seasonal winter losses from Page & Moy Travel Group for the first time.
The group said its cruise division carried a total of 16,274 passenger during the year, down from 21,254 the period year, and its tour operation division also carried almost 3,400 less passengers in the period to 44,286.
All Leisure did not declare a dividend, and said it is not proposing to pay dividends for the foreseeable future, as it focuses on cash resources and maximising profits.
During the year, the group said it invested heavily in its fleet, spending GBP8.8 million, compared with only GBP4.5 million on capital expenditure the prior year.
Shares in the company were trading 2.4% lower Monday morning, at 40.50 pence per share.
By Rowena Harris-Doughty; [email protected]; @rharrisdoughty
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