LONDON (Alliance News) - Leisure travel, distribution and logistics company Dart Group PLC saw its shares rise in early trade on Thursday after the company posted an underlying pretax profit, stripping out a one-off charge, rose by 36% on the back of improved revenue and as it said it will beat expectations for the current financial year.
Dart said its underlying pretax profit was up to GBP57.2 million from GBP42.1 million a year earlier. The underlying figure strips out a GBP17 million exceptional charge it booked in the year related to possible passenger compensation for historical flight delays. Including the one-off charge, pretax profit fell to GBP40.2 million from GBP42.1 million.
But the strong underlying results meant the company hiked its final dividend payout to 2.25 pence per share, up from 2.14 pence, which pushed its total dividend for the year up by 9% to 3.00 pence from 2.74 pence.
Group revenue rose by 12% in the year to GBP1.25 billion from GBP1.12 billion, with all of the growth coming from its leisure travel business, where revenue increased by 14%. The division was given a boost by an 8% rise in the number of passenger Dart flew over the year, in line with its increased seat capacity, plus a 20% rise in package holiday customers it carried.
Distribution and logistics revenue fell slightly in the year, down to GBP151.7 million from GBP153.2 million.
Dart also said it has started the 2016 financial year well and it anticipates it will exceed current market expectations for the full year.
Shares in Dart were up 4.3% to 434.00 pence in early trade, one of the best performers in the AIM All-Share.
By Sam Unsted; samunsted@alliancenews.com; @SamUAtAlliance
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