27 September 2018 – interim results

The travel and insurance group has issued interim results covering the six months to 31 July which have revealed that revenues fell to £430m (2017: £438m) whilst underlying pre-tax profit also fell slightly to £106.8m (2017: £110.9m).  Earnings per share on the same basis declined to 7.7p (2017: 8.1p) and the interim dividend was maintained at 3p.  Strong cash generation allowed net debt to be reduced to £430m (2017: £460m). The group is making good progress in gaining new customers in the over 50 age bracket which it serves and a confident statement by the group CEO bodes well for the second half.  We continue to believe that the shares are good value and maintain our recommendation of BUY.