18 May 2017 – interim results
The travel group has released its interim results for the six months to 31 March which have revealed a 12% increase in revenues to £2.99bn (2016: £2.67bn) reflecting strong demand for winter holidays to both Spain and long-haul destinations. However, in line with other travel groups, the winter period is usually loss-making and the company has reported an underlying pre-tax loss of £251m (2016: loss of £236m) with the increased loss due to additional costs. Net debt at the end of the period was £794m (2016: £818m) and no interim dividend was declared. The second half is traditionally the stronger as it includes the key summer months and there is strong customer demand across most of its markets, notably Greece. The group has confirmed that it is on target to meet full year expectations and pre-tax profits of £182m are on the cards for earnings per share of 9.9p. Despite the rise in the share price since our recommendation at 64p the shares are still worth HOLDING.