28th Oct 2013 08:40
LONDON (Alliance News) - Auto trader Pendragon PLC said Monday it expects its full-year results to be "materially ahead of expectations for the full year".
In an interim management statement for the period from July 1 to October 27, Pendragon said it is seeing progress across all areas of its business, with gross and departmental profit ahead in each of after-sales service, and new and used car sales.
In its service division, which provides maintenance and repairs, Pendragon said retail labour sales, its key measure for the business, grew by by 2.9% in the three months to September 30, and overall gross profit increased by 6.4% on a like-for-like basis.
In Pendragon's used-car unit, like-for-like unit sales increased by 9.7%, with year-to-date growth of 8.9%. Gross margin remained stable in the period, the company said.
Meanwhile, Pendragon said the UK new car market has been strong all year. It said its UK new-car business saw a 19% increase in retail volume and a 16% increase overall in the nine months ended September 30.
Pendragon said its balance sheet was strong, expecting to have a debt-to-underlying EBITDA ratio of less than 1.5 times on December 31.
"Market conditions have been favourable this year," Pendragon said in its statement. "Whilst the outlook to next year remains promising, we expect that aftersales recovery, driven by new car sales, will continue to be modest and the used car market will remain broadly flat."
Pendragon shares were up 8.4% at 41.75 pence in early trading Monday, making them the second biggest gainer on the FTSE All-Share index.
By Tom Waite; [email protected]; @thomaslwaite
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