Dart Share News (DTG)

Thu, 22nd Nov 2007 09:52

(Adds details on units, dividend; share price)

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Dart Group PLC said its first-half adjusted pretax profit declined and warned its underlying profitability for the year will be significantly reduced from last year, reflecting the investment made in growing the scheduled airline operations.

The aviation and distribution group also revised its second-half performance on an underlying basis saying it would now be in line with last year, because of a combination of winter revenues being lower than previously anticipated and an increase in aircraft maintenance costs.

For the first half, the company's pretax profit before Specific IAS 39 mark to market adjustments declined to 12.2 mln stg from a restated 20 mln last year. Pretax profit rose to 18.4 mln stg from 16 mln a year ago, while turnover surged to 252.9 mln stg from 198.8 mln.

Dart Group said its Jet2.com unit's profitability was reduced due to its emphasis on growth rather than margin in its scheduled operations, with capacity growing by 59 pct for the 2007 summer season.

However, the group's logistics company Fowler Welch-Coolchain's performance improved with turnover increasing by 11 pct at margins which were slightly behind the same period last year, it added.

The company has also declared an unchanged interim dividend of 0.65 pence per share.

At 9:08 am, shares were down 17.56 pct or 11.50 pence at 52.555 pence.





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