29 October 2009
At the Annual General Meeting to be held later today, Sir
Patrick Brown, Chairman of Go-Ahead, will make the following
Interim Management Statement for the period from 28 June 2009 to 28
October 2009:
Overall:
Overall, we were pleased with the Group's robust first quarter
trading which was in line with our expectations.
Our first quarter this year consisted of fourteen weeks ended 2
October 2009, compared with thirteen weeks last year. Year on year
movements described below have been adjusted to a like-for-like
basis.
Bus:
Revenue growth was slightly ahead of our expectations in both
our regulated and deregulated bus operations. Regulated mileage for
the quarter was slightly below the equivalent period last year due
to the phasing of contract gains and losses. Deregulated passenger
numbers were slightly up in the quarter, primarily due to the
concessionary fares schemes.
We continue to make good progress with cost control, including
labour efficiency and energy savings, and are on track to recover
the additional £4m of fuel costs this year. We use around
110m litres of fuel a year, which represents around 10% of our cost
base. Our fuel requirements are fully hedged for the current
financial year at an average of 47p per litre and for next
financial year at an average of 41p per litre.
Our strategy is to supplement organic growth in our bus
operations with value-adding acquisitions. The previously announced
East Thames and Horsham bus acquisitions were completed
successfully at the beginning of October for a total cash
consideration of £10m. They will contribute to the Group's
performance from the second quarter of the financial year.
Rail:
Our rail division operates the Southern (including Gatwick
Express), Southeastern and London Midland franchises through our
65% owned subsidiary Govia.
In Southern, results for the old franchise to 20 September were
in line with our expectations. We launched the new Southern
franchise without any significant operational or financial
disruption and are well placed to start delivering our initiatives
and commitments.
In Southeastern, revenue trends to date have been broadly in
line with our expectations and we have made good progress with cost
saving initiatives and preparation for the full High Speed service
and new timetable starting on 13 December 2009. We have been
particularly pleased with the customer response to our High Speed
preview services which were expanded recently to serve Dover,
Folkestone, Ramsgate and Canterbury.
In our smallest franchise, London Midland, our new management
team is introducing a number of changes to improve the performance
of the business. At this stage, we are assuming that the additional
costs of these changes will largely offset the underlying
profitability of this franchise for the current financial year.
Aviation services:
Results for the first quarter in our aviation services division
were slightly ahead of our expectations, due to ongoing cost saving
measures and better than expected revenue in ground handling and
cargo. Our Meteor parking operations performed as expected in the
quarter.
Outlook:
At this early stage in the financial year, we continue to assume
that economic conditions will remain difficult and have not changed
our expectations for the full year. We have a strong balance sheet
and will continue to emphasise service quality, cost savings and
financial discipline to provide solid returns for shareholders.
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
| The Go-Ahead Group |
|
| Keith Ludeman, Group Chief Executive |
020 7821 3920 |
| Nick Swift, Group Finance Director |
020 7821 3922 |
| Jim Boyd, Group Corporate Affairs Director |
020 7821 3923 |
| Catherine Garland, Group Communications Manager |
020 7821 3923 |
| |
|
| Citigate Dewe Rogerson |
020 7638 9571 |
| Michael Berkeley |
|
| Chris Barrie |
|
| Angharad Couch |
|
Notes to editors
Go-Ahead
Go-Ahead is one of the UK's leading providers of passenger
transport services operating in the bus, rail and aviation services
sectors. Employing around 27,000 people across the country, around
960 million passenger journeys are undertaken on our services each
year. In addition to the travelling public, customers include the
Department for Transport (DfT), Transport for London (TfL), local
authorities, British Airports Authority (BAA) and major
airlines.
Bus
Go-Ahead is one of the UK's largest bus operators. With a fleet
of over 3,500 buses, we carry, on average, around 1.6 million
passengers every day. Our operations are focused on high density
commuter markets. We have a strong presence in London, with around
21% market share, where we provide regulated services for TfL. We
operate deregulated services in the north east, Oxford, the south
east and southern England.
Rail
The rail operation, Govia, is 65% owned by Go-Ahead and 35% by
Keolis. It is the busiest rail operation in the UK, responsible for
nearly 30% of all UK passenger rail journeys through its three rail
franchises: Southern (which includes the Gatwick Express),
Southeastern and London Midland. In December 2009, Southeastern
will launch the UK's first high speed domestic rail service between
Kent and London, significantly reducing current journey times.
Southeastern is currently running preview services.
For further information about our rail franchises please visit our
factsheets:
www.go-ahead.com/goahead/ir/factsheets_rail/
Aviation Services
The Group's aviation services division is one of the UK's
largest independent providers of cargo services (primarily Plane
Handling), ground handling (primarily aviance UK) and car parking
(Meteor). The division operates from 14 airports and services major
airline operators such as British Airways (BA), Virgin and bmi.