Lufthansa guidance disappoints, weighs on peers - UPDATE

Profits guidance from German airliner Deutsche Lufthansa has disappointed analysts due to higher costs from its Score restructuring programme, dragging down European airline stocks.For full year 2013 the DAX-listed company forecasted an operating profit of between €600m to €700m, which was well below consensus analyst expectations for nearer €900m.The company cited the "substantial" effects of exchange rates during the period and pointed out it had maintained revenues despite running fewer flights.The Score programme, which the company described as one of the largest changes ever seen in its history, includes the development of its Germanwings low-cost subsidiary, turning around Austrian Airlines and the pooling of various back-office functions. Score costs hit €168m in the first three quarters, with project costs for product improvements €30m, and Lufthansa predicted total restructuring and project costs of €300m for the full year.After these costs are excluded, the Cologne-headquartered company said full year operating profit would be between €900m and €1bn. Chairman Christoph Franz said: "The Lufthansa Group has improved its result in the operating business for the first nine months of the year. In spite of substantial negative exchange rate effects and fewer flights, we have kept our revenue stable. We have also succeeded in reducing unit costs, in particular in our passenger business."Expectations had been high earlier in October, with analysts at Credit Suisse having noted that a management presentation on Score "strong and credible, which should help sentiment somewhat". The broker raised its target price to €20.30.A note from Natixis also on October 7th said that the group had quantified its project costs relating to the retrofit of its longhaul fleet at €120m for 2013, €300m in 2014 and below €100m in 2015.Shares in Deutsche Lufthansa were down 3.3% to €14.36 at 13:00 on Tuesday; with British Airways owner International Consolidated Airlines down 1.4% to 359.2p; easyJet down 2.6% to 1,323.27p; Ryanair was relatively unmoved at €6.40.OH