MARKET REPORT: Trainline returns to profit despite railway strikes 

App for train and coach tickets Trainline overcame railway strikes as it made huge sales and turned a profit again.

It handled sales of £4.3bn in the year to the end of February – a 72 per cent increase on the previous 12 months and 16 per cent more than the same period before the pandemic hit.

This helped boost his own revenue by 74 per cent year on year to £327m.

Trainline also bounced back to a £22 million profit, following a loss of £15.5 million a year earlier.

The UK operations reported higher sales due to an increase in shorter distances and commutes in addition to the increased use of e-tickets. But

it continued to be weighed down by railway strikes, estimated to have hit ticket sales by £5 million to £6 million a day.

They will wreak even more havoc, with strikes targeting the FA Cup final, the Epsom Derby and the Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool.

Elsewhere, business was booming, with ticket sales in Spain and Italy well above pre-pandemic levels. Jody Ford, the CEO, said it sold about 200 million train tickets across Europe last year as it looks to increase investment in the continent.

The industry took a serious hit during the pandemic as commuters had to work from home.

But as a sign of the ongoing recovery, Trainline expects sales to grow between 13 and 22 percent for the year to the end of February 2024.

That means it should top analysts’ forecasted 14 percent revenue growth. Shares rose 13 percent, or 31 pence, to 270 pence.

The FTSE 100 was down 1.1 percent, or 85.73 points, to 7702.64 and the FTSE 250 was down 0.6 percent, or 120.69 points, to 19,244.91.

Stock Watch – Maternal care

Mothercare has entered into talks with its lenders to renegotiate or refinance its debts in the face of higher interest rates.

The baby goods retailer, who has a mountain of £12.3 million in debt, said the interest on the loan now stands at around 18.2 per cent.

Along with a slowdown in returning to pre-pandemic sales levels, particularly in the Middle East, finances are now under pressure.

Shares fell 22.4 percent, or 1.97 pence, to 6.83 pence.

Hargreaves Lansdown was among the top blue-chip risers after Britain’s largest private equity firm posted higher revenues and net inflows.

Turnover of £188.1 million in the three months to the end of March was 28 per cent higher than in the same period a year ago and above the expected £178 million.

Assets under administration rose 4 per cent to £132 billion, and equities rose 1.1 per cent, or 8.6 pence, to 800.4 pence.

Liontrust Asset Management buys Swiss fund manager GAM for £96 million. The deal, which is expected to close between October and December, will create a global fund manager with £53 billion in assets under management and administration.

The stock fell 7.5 percent, or 64.5 pence, to 801.5 pence.

Three mid-cap firms were at the center of investor reaction to fat cat payments at their annual general meetings.

Hammerson, the owner of the Bullring shopping center in Birmingham, saw 39 percent of participating shareholders reject its 2022 pay report.

There were also uprisings over the re-election of five directors, as shares fell 2.5 percent, or 0.7 pence, to 26.92 pence.

Spirent Communications, which tests mobile 5G and Wi-Fi networks, saw nearly a third of shareholders who took part in the vote reject its remuneration policy.

Trustee Institutional Shareholder Services said little explanation was given as to why CEO Eric Updyke’s 2023 base salary has been increased by 15 percent.

The company reported a 20 percent drop in sales for the first three months of the year, compared to the same period in 2022.

And it launched a share buyback program for up to £56 million. Spirent rose 0.8 percent, or 1.4p, to 178.4p.

There was a slightly smaller uprising at Morgan Sindall.

The construction group’s remuneration policy was adopted when 22 percent of participating shareholders voted against the resolution.

The company said workload was up 4 percent to £8.8 billion in the three months to the end of March, compared to the previous quarter. Shares rose 4.1 percent, or 70 pence, to 1,764 pence.