16th Mar 2010 10:00
Annual General Meeting update
At its Annual General Meeting held today in London at 10:00am, Roger Allard, Executive Chairman of destination-led niche cruise operator, All Leisure group PLC (AIM:ALLG), gave the following update:
"Since my last update on 25th January, Winter 2009/10 ocean cruise bookings have continued in line with expectations with revenues remaining in line with budget.
Our Summer 2010 ocean cruising programme has continued to sell well. Across the Group, bookings are up 7% like-for-like, although increased pricing is offset by a more adverse cost environment and particularly weaker sterling. Our 2010 river capacity in both Europe and Egypt has been reduced this year. The Swans European river programme is sold out and most encouragingly, both FY 2009/10 revenues and margins for Discover Egypt are modestly ahead of this time last year.
Our hedging strategy remains unchanged. We continue to benefit from having hedged approximately half of our anticipated calendar 2010 ocean cruise fuel requirements and the majority of our currency requirements for the financial year.
From a technical perspective both mv. Discovery and mv. Hebridean Princess have successfully completed winter dry docks and are operating satisfactorily after significant refits. The mv.Alexander von Humboldt (acquired last November) is scheduled to move to its chosen shipyard in the next few days to complete the necessary final technical modifications and upgrades prior to its summer charter with Phoenixreisen which begins on 9th May 2010.
The board is very encouraged by the continuation of strong booking patterns. It has already flagged, however, that a number of factors will lead to greater first half losses this year. These include the purchase of the mv.Alexander von Humboldt, the mv.Hebridean Princess operating a predominantly summer-only programme, the costs of scheduled dry docks, lower investment income, a generally higher cost environment and the continued weakness of sterling. Despite this the board sees no reason to change its expectations for the full year."
Roger Allard (Executive Chairman) |
All Leisure group PLC |
Tel: +44 1444 462103 |
Adam Pollock, Andrew Godber |
Panmure Gordon (UK) Ltd |
Tel: +44 207 459 3600 |
Ginny Pulbrook |
Citigate Dewe Rogerson |
Tel: +44 207 282 2945 |
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