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Saga PLC on Wednesday said a better than expected first half performance was a ‘significant step forward’ towards meeting its mid-term financial objectives. The Kent, England-based provider of products and services for people over 50 said pretax loss narrowed to £3.7 million in the six months to July from £104.0 million the year prior. Last year’s figure included a £138.3 million impairment to Insurance Broking goodwill, while this year’s total saw £42.4 million of exceptional charges compared to gains of £7.1 million a year prior. Underlying pretax profit increased 42% to £38.7 million from £27.2 million with underlying earnings per share of 27.7 pence, up 55% from 17.9p a year ago. This reflected an improved performance in Travel, where underlying profit rose 33%, and Insurance Underwriting, where profit ballooned to £15.6 million from just £1.9 million last year, helping to offset a 29% decline in Insurance Broking profitability. For continuing operations, underlying pretax profit was down 5.2% to £23.5 million from £24.8 million. Total underlying revenue declined 3.1% to £381.0 million from £393.3 million, with sales from continuing operations up 7.5% to £320.5 million from £298.2 million. Saga said it was a ‘strong’ first half trading performance, ‘ahead of our expectations’. As a result, full year underlying pretax profit is now expected to be in line with the prior year, despite increased finance costs, Saga said. In the financial year to January 31, 2025, Saga reported underlying pretax profit of £47.8 million, or £37.2 million from continuing operations. In response, shares in Saga were up 3.3% at 224.04 pence each in London on Wednesday morning. Chief Executive Mike Hazell said these are ‘strong’ results. ‘Our Travel business has performed particularly strongly. Demand for our exceptional Ocean and River Cruise holidays continued to grow and we have seen a material increase in the number of customers enjoying our hotel and touring holidays.’ ‘Trading in our Insurance business was ahead of expectations and we made good progress with our strategy to reengineer our insurance operations,’ he noted. Saga completed the sale of its Insurance Underwriting business to Ageas SA in July, while a 20-year Insurance Broking partnership with the same company remains on track to go live later this year. Also in July, Saga announced a seven-year partnership with NatWest Group PLC, which will see the launch of savings products that cater for people over 50. Saga is targeting underlying profitability of at least £100.0 million by January 2030 and CEO Hazell said the performance in the first half was a ‘significant step forward’ towards meeting these aims. In Travel, Saga said it has strong forward bookings for the second half of the year. ‘In both Ocean and River Cruise, and in Holidays, we anticipate a further improvement in profitability, driven by higher passenger numbers,’ it added. ‘Insurance has performed well in the first half and we expect this to continue into the second,’ Saga said. Copyright 2025 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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