Arena Leisure sees fall in revenues and profit

The company, which operates seven racecourses in the UK including Doncaster, issued a profits warning in January after the ice and snow during the last five weeks of 2010 caused seven meetings to be abandoned.

It has also warned that 2011 is likely to remain tough and is not anticipating overall growth in 2011.

Revenues declined from £65.2m to £64m in 2010, while pre-tax profit fell from £4.1m in 2009 to £3.6m last year.

Earnings per share were down from 1.16p to 1.02p and the company said it was maintaining its final dividend at 0.38p per share.

Arena reduced its net borrowings by £6.5m to £39.8m.

Chief executive Mark Elliott said: “Arena has produced another solid performance this year. The group’s increasing diversity of income streams has helped reduce the impact of the on-going difficult trading conditions facing the wider racing industry.

“Arena continues to demonstrate operational excellence in its core business with industry-leading growth in average attendances at our racecourses.”

Doncaster Racecourse has planning consent for a 120-bedroom hotel and 34 homes. This consent was recently extended until mid-2013. The board said it remained confident of the commercial viability of the scheme.

Mr Elliott added: “Whilst we expect that 2011 is likely to be another challenging year, current trading is in line with expectations and Arena continues to maximise the various development opportunities inherent within its portfolio.”