Strong H1 puts National Express on the road to full year success
BIRMINGHAM-based public transport group, National Express, has said it made strong progress during the first half and remains on course to meet full year expectations.
The company, which operates bus and coach services in the UK, continental Europe, North Africa, North America and the Middle East, together with rail services in the UK, said both revenue and profits were up year-on-year.
“We have achieved further significant new contract wins and we remain on target to generate £100m of free cash for the full year. Our strong operational and financial position means we are both able to invest in growth and increase our interim dividend payment by 10%,” it said.
During H1, group revenue was up 2.2% year-on-year to £960.2m (2014: £939.5m). The was a 6% increase in like-for-like group operating profit, after excluding rail and Middle East bid costs and at constant currency. Group normalised operating profit rose by 19%, with statutory profit after tax up by 117%.
Return on capital employed increased to 11.9% (December 31, 2014: 10.7%); excluding rail and Middle East bid costs return on capital employed improved to 12.8% (Year end December 2014: 12.4%).
It has proposed an interim dividend of 3.685p, up 10% year-on-year (2014: 3.35p).
In rail, it said there had been excellent start to the new c2c franchise with revenue growth of 10%, ahead of what it bid.
A successful bid season for its North America School Bus arm benefited from an average price increase of 2.8% across the entire portfolio of contracts. Two small acquisitions were made at the end of the period and a new transit contract won.
The group also saw further success in the German rail market with the award of two contracts for Rhine Ruhr Express services. The contracted revenues secured could be worth €2.6bn to the group.
Dean Finch, chief executive, National Express, said: “These results demonstrate the benefit of our recent focus on both improving our services to customers and securing sustainable cash flows from our businesses. This enables us now to invest further in growth and at the same time, increase our dividend. We will continue to strive constantly to improve the value of the services we provide to our customers and deliver growth across the whole business. This, coupled with our contract wins, will continue to drive shareholder value.”
