LONDON (Alliance News) - Pub company Ei Group PLC on Tuesday announced an extension to its current buyback programme, after a solid interim performance.
Ei is to add GBP30 million to the programme, on top of the GBP35 million announced in March. Ei does not currently pay a dividend.
For the six months to March, Ei's revenue rose 7.0% to GBP353 million, but pretax profit slipped 71% to GBP13 million due to a net loss on a property sale. On an adjusted basis, Ei's pretax profit increased by 3.5% to GBP59 million.
In Publican Partnerships, Ei's like-for-like net income rose 1.9% year-on-year to GBP142.2 million, after 0.6% growth the same period a year before. Average annualised net income per pub rose 2.7% to GBP83,100.
Managed Pub like-for-like sales growth was 6.0%, easing from 6.6% a year before. Ei is expanding this segment, transferring pubs from Publican Partnerships.
There were 419 pubs in the division as of March's end, from 319 a year before, and it hopes to have between 460 and 470 by September's end.
"Last year the Easter holiday period was in the final week of the first half of our financial year whereas this year the later Easter has helped ensure the second half of our financial year has started well and current trading is in line with our expectations," said Ei.
"Continued consumer resilience, combined with excellent operational execution and effective capital investment into our flexible business models, provides us with the confidence that, despite some challenging comparative trading periods ahead of us in June and July, we can maintain our growth momentum for the year as a whole."
Ei shares were 5.3% higher on Tuesday at a price of 221.20 pence each.
