Stagecoach Group Posts Higher H1 Adjusted Profit, Maintains Guidance

Stagecoach Group PLC (OTC: SAGKF) reported a rise in its adjusted first-half profit and maintained its outlook for the full year.Stagecoach posted a pretax profit of 98.3 million pounds ($153.30 million), compared to GBP98.5 million, in the year-earlier period. Excluding certain items, pre-tax profit climbed to 108.6 million pounds from 105.6 million pounds.EPS from continuing and total operations surged to 13.8 pence from 13.6 pence, while adjusted EPS climbed to 15.1 pence from 14.6 pence.Its revenue gained to GBP1.55 billion, versus GBP1.47 billion.Stagecoach declared an interim dividend of 3.2 pence a share, versus 2.9 pence a share.Chief Executive, Martin Griffiths, said, “Despite facing a number of challenges, our sector-leading commercial bus operations in the UK have continued to grow, helping support the economies of some of the country's biggest city regions. Working with other bus companies and building on our existing multi-million-pound digital strategy, we are planning to introduce smart multi-operator ticketing in key city regions during 2015. This transformational initiative demonstrates what can be achieved at local community level without the need for costly and unnecessary regulatory change.”