Rail and bus divisions boost Stagecoach

The Scotland-based company, which also announced a raft of management changes, on Wednesday said like-for-like revenues at its British rail unit rose 6.8 per cent in the twelve weeks to July 22, while sales at its North America coach business, which includes Megabus, rose 10.4 per cent.

Its British regional bus division reported a 4.1 per cent sales uplift during the period but its London bus business posted revenues down 5.7 per cent after it dropped some contracts as part of a restructuring drive.

Its major bus operations are in London, Liverpool, Newcastle, Hull, Manchester, Oxford, Sheffield and Cambridge.

Stagecoach said the overall profitability of the group had remained good, and that there had been no significant change to its annual pre-tax profit forecasts.

Virgin Rail, jointly owned by Stagecoach and Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, was last week stripped of the West Coast Mainline franchise, which runs from London to Scotland, after the Department for Transport awarded the 13 year franchise to rival FirstGroup.

Stagecoach, which transports some 2.5 million passengers a day, is however shortlisted for the Greater Western and Thameslink rail franchises.

“Stagecoach is shortlisted for both of the other UK rail franchises it applied for and we are making good progress with our bid for the Great Western franchise,” the company said.

“We will also consider other rail franchise opportunities as these arise.”

Stagecoach also said its chief executive Brian Souter would stand down and become the company’s chairman in May 2013, replacing George Mathewson who is retiring. Martin Griffiths, the company’s finance director, will take over as chief executive, the company said.

Shares in the company, which have risen a quarter in the last three months, closed at 297.2 pence on Tuesday, valuing the group at around £1.7 billion.