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Robust trading in bus and rail; results in line with management expectations

Business overview

• Continued growth in bus volumes across all companies, helped by roll-out of smartcards
• Strong underlying rail performance with passenger journey growth in all franchises
• Underlying profit growth; previous first half included £9m of one-off rail contract management benefits
• Strong cash management and robust balance sheet
• Decrease in underlying net debt+ despite significant investment in new buses
• Maintained interim dividend at 25.5p
• Remain cautious about wider economic outlook

* Before amortisation and exceptional items
** H1’12 free cashflow and net debt figures are adjusted for a temporary rolling stock deposit which was reimbursed in January 2012. Actual free cashflow is £(36.6)m and actual net debt is £142.0m
+ Excluding a temporary rolling stock deposit which was reimbursed in January 2012

David Brown, Group Chief Executive, commented:
“I am pleased to report a good set of results for the first half of the financial year. Growth has continued across all of our businesses as the public seek high quality, convenient and value for money alternatives to the private car.

“In bus, our strategic focus of operating in more vibrant urban areas, predominantly in the South East, combined with innovative local marketing and the promotion of smart ticketing has continued to deliver passenger growth. We recently announced the acquisition of Carousel, a small bus business in High Wycombe, which fits perfectly with our strategy of acquiring bolt-on businesses which provide a solid basis for increasing passenger numbers.

 “As London’s largest bus and rail operator we will play a significant role in providing transport services for the Olympic Games. We look forward to demonstrating the quality of our services and staff. In particular our high speed ‘Javelin’ rail services will transport spectators in an impressive seven minutes from St Pancras International to the Olympic Park.

“We have a very strong position in the UK rail market with our long term partner Keolis, with whom we have recently submitted initial bid documents for Thameslink and Essex Thameside. Together, we have been operating trains in the UK for 15 years, running around 5,500 services a day on our three franchises and carrying more passengers each year than on most European countries’ rail networks.

“The Group remains in a good financial position with strong cash generation and a robust balance sheet.

“Looking ahead, whilst we remain suitably cautious about the wider economic outlook, in rail we expect first half revenue growth trends to continue in the second half and in bus we expect a solid performance despite an impact from the implementation of a new contract.

“Overall, we continue to anticipate the Group will deliver full year results in line with management expectations.”

Half Year Results in full

For further information, please contact:

David Brown, Group Chief Executive and Keith Down, Group Finance Director will be hosting a presentation
for analysts at 9.00am today (23 February 2012) at Investec, 2 Gresham Street, London EC2V 7QP,
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7597 5970.
A live audio webcast of the presentation will be available on Go-Ahead’s website – www.go-ahead.com.
The presentation slides will be added to Go-Ahead’s website at around 7:30am today.