13th Jul 2006 12:00
FirstGroup PLC13 July 2006 Thursday 13 July 2006 Extracts from presentations made to shareholders at the Group's Annual General Meeting in Aberdeen today: "The Group reported another year of excellent progress across all divisions. Wehave a clear strategy to deliver value for shareholders by growing our corebusinesses in the UK and North America and developing transport-relatedopportunities in new markets. We will continue to use the Group's strong andpredictable cashflows to invest in our businesses, increase the annual dividendby 10% until at least 2008 and, where appropriate, make share repurchases, whilemaintaining our strong balance sheet. "We are delighted with the performance of our Rail division. All of ouroperations performed extremely well delivering record revenue and profits. Thisdemonstrates the strength of our rail franchises which have continued to deliverstrong passenger volume growth. We have now secured additional longer-termrevenue of over £1 billion per annum for up to 10 years with the award of thetwo new enlarged rail franchises First Great Western and First Capital Connect.We are now the UK's largest passenger rail operator and will continue to buildon our reputation for innovation, investment and customer service. We have nowsubmitted our bid for the new South Western franchise and remain confident aboutthe Group's future opportunities in UK railways. "In UK Bus revenue growth has continued to be strong and we have seen anencouraging trend of increased passenger journeys for the UK bus division as awhole. While significant cost increases, in particular fuel, continue to impactmargins our strategy is to focus on operational performance while managing coststhrough more efficient practices and increased productivity. Our continuedfocus on service quality together with actions we've taken have deliveredimproved vehicle reliability, increased mileage operated to its highest level infour years and eliminated driver shortages. In May this year we launched 'ftr'our premium urban travel concept in York. The second 'ftr' scheme will launch inLeeds later this year and we are evaluating plans for further schemes in citiessuch as Sheffield, Swansea, Reading, Bath and Glasgow. The Government's newconcessionary fares schemes offering free travel for senior citizens anddisabled people were launched on 1 April 2006. We are encouraged by earlyindications that show the schemes are working well and concessionary farepassengers are making additional journeys. "Our North America business performed well during the year. Since we entered themarket we have delivered consistent returns with EBITDA growth of approximately13% per annum since 2000. In First Student, where we operate over 21,000 yellowschool buses, we were pleased to retain over 95% of existing contracts that cameup for renewal and improve contract terms to better reflect the cost pressureswe face. We continued to grow our market share through a combination of newcontract wins, organic growth and acquisitions. In First Transit we were verypleased to retain a number of important contracts that came up for renewalincluding transit management and contracting business in Los Angeles and Denver.First Services continued its successful growth with a good trading performanceand also an improved operating margin. In October we commenced operation of asubstantial contract to provide land based support systems to the US Navy. Lastweek we were delighted to learn that we have retained, with our joint venturepartners, a significant contract, to provide support services to the US Navy forup to 10 years. "The board remains confident about the prospects for the Group. Trading in thefirst three months of the year has started well and is ahead of ourexpectations." FirstGroup contacts on 13 July 2006: Rachael Borthwick, Group Corporate Communications Director 07771 945 432 Stuart Bugg, Corporate Communications Manager 07734 577 684 / David Whitton, PR 07771 941 170 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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