'Market Report' 'Independent' 7. January 2005

Finally, brokers were surprised to see MyTravel's ordinary shares and its so-called "A" shares trade at different prices. The two classes of share are identical in all but name, according to brokers, with the differentiation merely a quirk of the company's recent refinancing. So why the difference in price yesterday when MyTravel ordinaries closed at 7.5p, down 0.5p, while its "A" shares closed at 4.75p, down 1.1p?

Market professionals and the company were at a loss to explain the apparent anomaly. Nevertheless, brokers advised clients holding MyTravel ordinaries to sell them in the market and buy the same quantity of the lower-priced "A"s. The difference in the value of the two deals the investor keeps as profit. MyTravel is tipped to consolidate the two classes of stock into one in the not too distant future.

Please do note that the newly issued MyTravel shares have the symbol MT.S as opposed to the older MT.L symbol.

Happy hunting guys"""

MyTravel on the move

Saturday June 4, 2005
The Guardian

The tour operator MyTravel continued its recent good run yesterday with its shares closing at their highest level since late April amid talk that half-year figures, due on June 23, will not disappoint and that the company could play a part in any sector consolidation.
The results will be the first since MyTravel completed its massive debt-for-equity swap and are expected to show the company's restructuring plan is on track.

MyTravel now en route to profit

DAVID BLACK
DEPUTY BUSINESS EDITOR


MYTRAVEL, the sick man of the UK travel industry, saw its shares do an about-turn yesterday after announcing bookings were up and it was on target for an operating profit in 2006.

The group, which required an 800 million debt overhaul last year to stay in business, said in a trading statement in advance of its annual meeting that it had achieved "significant progress" in restoring the business.

In response, its shares which had traded as low as 3.77p over the year, rose at one point by over 7 per cent, before falling back to close 6.36 per cent up at 5.85p, valuing the business at about 502m.

Manchester-based MyTravel, formerly known as Airtours, said its three divisions - UK, Northern Europe and North America - had met forecasts during the winter despite the impact of the December tsunami on tourism in Asia, which cost it an estimated 12m.

Much of this figure - 10m - related to northern Europe after its Scandinavian division stopped operating to Phuket in January.

For the summer season it reported "significantly fewer" holidays left unsold. In northern Europe, booking levels had shown a slight improvement, with margins higher, while in North America demand was "encouraging".

Peter McHugh, the MyTravel chief executive, said: "The company is making good progress in line with our business plan and I think we are turning the corner."

He said his aim was to return all three units to profit at operating level by 2006 and to match industry-wide profit margins of 3.5 per cent at its stricken UK arm by 2007.

McHugh added: "As part of this business plan, in the UK we have reduced capacity for this year, begun to make improvements to our product offering and continued to focus on cost control." But the company warned that while it had hedged its fuel requirements for the current financial year, oil prices threatened to drag on earnings further ahead if they remained at near-record levels.

The company has bought caps for jet fuel at US$600 per metric tonne, the equivalent of $60 per barrel of Brent crude, for the remaining 300,000 tonnes of fuel it expects to use this financial year. It has also imposed a 15 fuel supplement on all its short-haul flights.

McHugh said shareholders had overwhelmingly approved the reorganisation of the companys share capital, designed to simplify its capital structure by transferring 96 per cent of the company to creditors.

Shortly before its restructuring, the group announced in December annual losses of 190.3m for the 13 months to 31 October, although this was far better than the deficit of 910.9m reported a year earlier.

MyTravel came close to collapse following a sharp downturn in travel after the 11 September, 2001 attacks. Its woes were compounded in 2002 by accounting errors and growing competition from low-cost airlines. MyTravel responded by cutting capacity and axing thousands of jobs, before completing its 800m life-saving debt-for-equity swap.

Things do appear to be on the up. It would appear that although the high street is suffering, people are still spending money on holidays.

Firming again, today. It rose after First Choice announced its results earlier in the week, eased off a touch, now it's moving up again. Results next week should confirm progess and that the company is making good gound on its recovery.

Not a bad week, the uptrend continues. After a long series of 2,000 AT sells, there was an interesting little spike just before the close on Friday.

The key aspect now is whether the travel industry will stand aside while MyTravel regains it rightful place in the market, or will there be an early attempt to take it out. Might not be so hard as there are already some large stakes which could readily be bought. Keep watching closely.