25th Oct 2007 07:01
Go-Ahead Group PLC25 October 2007 25 October 2007 THE GO-AHEAD GROUP PLC ("Go-Ahead" or "the group") AGM AND FIRST QUARTER INTERIM MANAGEMENT STATEMENT At the Annual General Meeting to be held later today, Sir Patrick Brown, Chairman of Go-Ahead, will make the following statement: "The group's overall trading for the first quarter has been strong, in line withmanagement's expectations. Our regulated bus operations in London continue to perform well, and havebenefited from the Blue Triangle acquisition completed at the end of June 2007.Ongoing volume growth contributed to an improved financial performance in almostall of our deregulated bus businesses compared to the first quarter of lastyear. The exception was our West Midlands operation where the financial resultsremain below our medium term requirements. For the division as a whole,approximately half of our fuel requirements are hedged for the current financialyear. In our rail division, Southern and Southeastern continued to benefit from growthin passenger volume, leading to an increase in first quarter passenger income of12.7% compared to the first quarter of last year. This revenue growth has beenpartly offset as expected however, by higher costs combined with the 80% profitshare in Southern and reduced DfT subsidies under the terms of the franchises. Our London Midland franchise, awarded on 21 June, is due to start on11 November and is progressing to plan. We remain committed to improving the performance of our aviation servicesdivision, following a challenging second half of last year. Ground handlingcontracts with British Airways were implemented during the first quarter andmost of the initial transition issues have now been resolved. First quartercargo volumes were ahead of the same period last year and our car parkingoperations performed in line with our expectations in the quarter. Net debt excluding restricted cash at the end of the quarter was £260.0m,compared to £237.2m at 30 June 2007. We have purchased 2.373 million of ourshares since the year end for £61.5m and will seek shareholder approval for therenewal of the authority for the share buyback programme at today's AGM. The board remains confident that the group will make further progress thisyear." -ends- For further information, please contact: The Go-Ahead Group plcKeith Ludeman, Group Chief Executive 020 8929 8650Nick Swift, Group Finance Director 0191 232 3123 Weber Shandwick Financial 020 7067 0700Richard Hews/ Rachel Martin/ Hannah Marwood Notes to Editors BUSThe group's bus division operates over 3,600 buses, providing over 540 millionpassenger journeys and covering around 240 million vehicle kilometres eachyear. Operations fall into four main geographical areas: deregulated servicesin north east; deregulated services in West Midlands; deregulated services insouth east / southern England; and regulated services for Transport for Londonin the capital. RAILThe group's rail division operates a fleet of over 620 trains on which over 280million passenger journeys are undertaken. Concentrated in the south east ofEngland both our franchises, Southern and Southeastern, operate a mix ofsuburban commuter and mainline routes throughout south London, Kent, Surrey andSussex. The Southeastern franchise will include the operation of new high speedtrains on the domestic Channel Tunnel Rail Link into St Pancras from 2009 whilethe Southern franchise will include the operations of the Gatwick Express railservices from May 2008. From November 2007 Go-Ahead will also operate the newlyformed West Midlands rail franchise, to be named as London Midland. AVIATION SERVICESThe group's aviation services division undertakes a wide range of supportservices for national and international airlines. Services provided includecargo handling, passenger check-in, baggage handling, information desks,executive lounges, ground handling and customs clearance. In the last year, weprovided services to 45 million passengers as well as over half a millionaircraft movements. The division includes Meteor Parking which is one of thelargest parking companies in the UK, managing around 65,000 parking spacespredominantly at BAA airports, with a range of customers, including BAA, localauthorities, retail outlets, NHS trusts, hotels and rail stations. Well knownbrands include 'Pink Elephant', 'Park 1' and 'eparking'. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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