Coach operator Rotala sees H1 revenue grow 18%
BUS and coach operator Rotala has announced an 18% increase in turnover and a 15% rise in interim pre-tax profit, boosted by organic growth and acquisition.
The Birmingham based group saw turnover grow to £26.6m (2010: £22.5m) for the first six months of the year. Pre-tax profit came in at £0.92m (2010: £0.8m).
Basic earnings per share were up 13% to 2.75p (2010: 2.44p), while net cash flows increased to £2.33m (2010: £1.2m). The firm has also announced a 33% rise in interim dividend to 0.40p per share (2010: 0.30p).
Rotala is the number two bus operator by market share in both the West Midlands, where it operates the Diamond Bus brand, and Bristol, where it operates as Wessex Connect. The West Midlands remains the second largest bus market in the country after London. The group is also one of the leading providers of private bus networks in the country, especially to the aviation industry in the South East.
John Gunn, non-executive chairman, said: “The group has continued to make good progress so far this year. Revenues rose by 18%, when compared to those of the first half of 2010, to a total of £26.6m.
“This rise in revenue occurred in both our major business streams, as a result of organic growth and the acquisition we made of Preston Bus Ltd (PBL) in January 2011.”
The group, which operates Flights Coaches and various regional bus services, saw revenues in Contracted Services rise by 8% during the period, to £10.3m. A large part of this rise came from the four month contribution of PBL. There was also an increase of 2% in the underlying contracted business during the period.
Mr Gunn said: “It had been our assumption that it would be difficult to grow this part of the business because of the pressure on local authority budgets, particularly in Worcestershire. Whilst this expectation was in the main fulfilled, there were modest gains in smaller aviation related contracts around Heathrow, which, taken together with RPI-driven price increases in existing contracts, served to ensure that we saw a small increase in underlying revenues.”
Revenues in Commercial Services showed the largest period on period increase with a rise in revenue of 32% to £13.8m.
“By far the greatest contribution to this growth came from the acquisition of PBL, which is principally a commercial bus business,” added Mr Gunn.
There was also a significant increase in commercial revenues from the rest of the business which the group said reflected the investments it had made in new commercial routes in the West Midlands and South West.
