STOB.L Regulatory News (STOB)

22 Jan 2010 07:00



Stobart Group Limited

('Stobart' or 'the Group')

Interim Management Statement

Stobart, one of the UK's leading providers of multimodal transport and logistics services, is issuing its Interim Management Statement covering the period from 22 October 2009 to the current date. 

The Board is confident that it will meet its year end pre-tax profit expectations and deliver further value from its substantial asset base. 

The Group has had a year of consolidation, whilst finalising the integrations of its acquired businesses and restructuring certain divisions. The foundations of the multimodal strategy are in place to provide growth over the coming year.

Road transport and warehousing operations experienced reasonably static revenues compared to the prior year with new business secured for growth during the next financial year. Operational synergy benefits and further efficiency improvements are expected to lead to a good improvement in PBT margin, which will be in line with management's expectations. Unfavorable weather conditions at the start of January proved a challenge but by working in partnership with our customers and thanks to the commitment of our drivers, we have continued to deliver a comprehensive service throughout these tricky times for transport.

Port operations have remained steady during the financial year and although like-for-like revenue will be slightly lower the profit before tax will show a significant improvement. Phase 1 of the inland port development was completed in the year and there is interest from existing and new customers for the next phases.

Rail operations are performing very well with the freight services growing through the recently commenced Valencia chilled service. The rail civil engineering operations are performing well above expectations, with a good mixture of profitable rail and engineering contracts delivered during the year. Overall, it is expected that rail will be significantly ahead of the prior year. 

Southend Airport received a recommendation for approval of the runway extension planning application from the local Councils on Wednesday 20 January and, as expected, a Section 14 notice has been served. We hope for a quick decision on the Section 14 notice to allow us to complete construction of the Airport to service the 2012 Olympics. The construction of a new airport railway station continues and we expect this to open in early summer. The development of the Carlisle Airport Group distribution centre will commence in Spring of this year. The Airport operations are in line with management expectations.

In addition, the Group is committed to developing its assets in the Ports and Airports division to improve returns to shareholders. As highlighted at the interim date, Stobart expects to realise the value and profit in certain existing assets with the consequential benefit to the balance sheet and a significantly reduced net debt figure at the year end.

Stobart will announce its full year results, for the year ended 28 February 2010 on Wednesday 12 May 2010.  Details of the location and time for the analyst presentation will be announced in due course.

22 January 2010

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