LONDON (Alliance News) - Cambria Automobiles PLC saw its shares rise early Thursday after it said its trading performance in the first four months of its financial year has been "substantially ahead" of the previous year, as it had outperformed the continued strong growth in the UK new car market, and it expects its results for the first half as a whole to be significantly up on the year.
The auto retailer said new vehicle sales in the first four months of the fiscal year were up 19.3% in total and 11.9% on a like-for-like basis, well ahead of the 8.2% growth in the UK new car market over the same period.
It said used car sales also performed well, rising 1.8% in total, while gross profit per used car sold also continued to rise. It said profitability in its aftersales business is currently up 10.7% on the year, or 3% on a like-for-like basis.
"The Barnet business that was acquired in July 2014 has performed in line with expectations. This acquisition added the sixth Jaguar dealership and the first Land Rover dealership to the group, and the board remains confident about its potential," it said in a statement.
Cambria said it expects its results for the six months to February 28 will be "significantly" up on the year on a like-for-like basis and it is confident about the outlook for the remainder of the financial year.
"In this regard, the group's trading performance is also tracking ahead of current market expectations for the full year," it said.
Cambria reported underlying pretax profit, which excludes non-recurring expenses, of GBP2.0 million for the first half of its last financial year on revenue of GBP204.8 million. For the whole of that year, underlying pretax profit was GBP5.4 million, pretax profit was GBP5.3 million, and revenue was GBP450.1 million.
Cambria's shares were up 6.9% at 51.84 pence early Thursday, making it one of the best-performing stocks on the AIM All-Share index on the day and marking the stock's highest level since late September.
By Steve McGrath; stevemcgrath@alliancenews.com; @stevemcgrath1
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