By Mobico Group, formerly known as National Express, has announced a swing to a pretax loss for the first half of the year. The company cited higher costs as the main reason for the decline in profitability. Despite this setback, Mobico Group is optimistic about its adjusted operating profit for 2023, expecting it to be in the range of GBP200 million to GBP215 million.
In the six months leading up to June 30, Mobico Group reported a pretax loss of GBP23.4 million, a significant drop from the pretax profit of GBP20.5 million in the same period last year. Adjusted pretax profit, which excludes exceptional and one-off items, also experienced a decline, falling to GBP25.4 million from GBP68.7 million.
One of the key metrics for Mobico Group, adjusted operating profit, decreased to GBP57.5 million compared to GBP90.5 million in the previous year. This decline was primarily due to a reduction of GBP60 million in Covid-19 funding. On a positive note, revenue increased from GBP1.32 billion to GBP1.57 billion.
Despite market uncertainties, Mobico Group remains confident in its full-year outlook. Chief Executive Ignacio Garat emphasized several factors supporting this confidence, including encouraging passenger growth, pricing power, high levels of contract retention, successful mobilization of contracts, and the company’s efforts to optimize pricing and costs.
To provide returns to its shareholders, the board declared an interim dividend of 1.7 pence per share.
As a result of the financial news, shares of Mobico Group declined by 9.6% at 96.60 pence as of 1412 GMT.
For more information, please contact Anthony O. Goriainoff.
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