27th Oct 2005 13:30
Go-Ahead Group PLC27 October 2005 27 October 2005 The Go-Ahead Group plc ("Go-Ahead" or the "Group") AGM statement At the Annual General Meeting to be held later today, Sir Patrick Brown,Chairman of Go-Ahead, will make the following statement: "In the first quarter, the Group's bus business has continued to suffer from thecost pressures referred to at the time of our preliminary announcement. Despitethis, the business in London has continued to perform well, benefiting from itscontinuing delivery of a high quality operating performance. Outside London,margins remain under pressure whilst the strategies developed to cope with highfuel costs and continuing wage inflation take effect. Within the rail division, Southern continues to perform strongly and has enjoyedexcellent operating performance during the period. As expected, the terroristattacks in London had a significant impact on Thameslink revenues during thequarter although passenger numbers are now recovering. Further steps have been taken in the quarter to improve the profitability of thecore aviation services division whilst Plane Handling and Meteor continue toprogress. The Group remains confident that, despite the issues described above in thefirst part of the year, performance will improve as the year unfolds. The board will continue with a progressive dividend policy and intends to reducethe Group's dividend cover to 2.0 times adjusted earnings by the year endingJune 2007. The board also remains committed to its share buy-back programme andintends to pursue this up to the 10% authority being sought at the AGM." For further information, please contact: The Go-Ahead Group plcChris Moyes, Chief Executive 0191 232 3123Ian Butcher, Group Finance Director Weber Shandwick Square Mile (WSSM) 020 7067 0700Richard Hews/Rachel Taylor/Stephanie Badjonat Note to Editors: Go-Ahead is a key operator of commuter services in London and the South East. Itis the franchise holder for Thameslink and Southern. Bus services include LondonCentral and General, companies in North East England, Oxford, Brighton, Poole,Bournemouth, Southampton, Isle of Wight and routes in the Gatwick Airport andCrawley conurbation. The aviation and car parking businesses have nationwidecoverage. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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