|
Saga PLC on Thursday announced that it expects to report increased earnings for its full year, after ‘excellent’ trading in the second half. Shares in Saga jumped 13% to 492.00 pence each in London on Thursday. The Kent, England-based provider of products and services for people over 50 plans to publish results for the 12 months ending January 31 on April 15. Following most of its second half, or the period from August 1 to January 28, Saga said it expects to report increased underlying pretax profit for the full year, which would also be an improvement on its half-year guidance. Saga previously reported underlying pretax profit of £47.8 million, or £37.2 million from continuing operations, for financial 2025. Reporting in September on a ‘strong’ first half, it said it anticipated full-year underlying pretax profit in line with the prior year. The company also expects trading earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation ‘to be ahead of’ the £137.1 million reported for the prior year. Saga highlighted its cruise businesses, saying Ocean Cruise ‘has continued to deliver an excellent performance, with a strong load factor of 93%’, while River Cruise’s underlying pretax profit ‘has also continued to grow’ with an 89% load factor. The firm also expects Holidays to deliver a ‘stronger’ underlying pretax profit, noting approximately 13% on-year growth in booked revenue and 11% passenger growth. Additionally, it anticipates ‘marginally higher’ underlying pretax profit for Insurance Broking, which would be ahead of its forecasts. The division ‘outperformed our expectations, with continued growth in policy sales in three out of our four insurance products,’ Saga said. Chief Executive Officer Mike Hazell commented: ‘As we look ahead, we expect the momentum to continue to build in our Cruise and Holidays businesses, while in Insurance Broking we expect underlying profit before tax to be in line with previous guidance. ‘We continue to make progress against our longer term plans and are currently ahead of our expected trajectory. We remain confident of delivering underlying profitability of at least £100.0m, and leverage below 2.0x by January 2030.’ Copyright 2026 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
|
