Cost cuts put National Express back on track

IncreasIng passenger numbers and investment in technology are doing the trick at National Express.

shares soared as the firm reported pre-tax profit was up 12.3pc in the three months to september. revenue rose 6.4pc and overall passenger numbers climbed 2.5pc.

The group, perhaps best known for its fleet of UK coaches, also has a german rail business, bus and coach services in spain and Morocco, and runs school buses in the Us.

That international diversity has been important to the company’s turnaround, because the UK market has been ‘challenging’.

national express said that it grew UK bus and coach revenues despite competition and the threat of terrorism.

cuts have resulted in annual savings of £10m in the UK and £7.5m in the Us, with the money being invested in technology. already, smart cameras in coaches have reduced collisions, and more than 10pc of UK bus revenue comes through mobile ticketing.

The firm has also won five new contracts this year including a sightseeing contract in Tenerife and another deal with British airways. The firm has seen annual revenue in its transit business double over the past 18 months to £212m. shares surged 6.3pc, or 21.6pc, to 364.4p.

Connect Group leapt as it promised a ‘two-year transformation’.

The distribution firm, which supplies newspapers and magazines to airlines, said revenue fell 3.1pc to £1.6bn in the year, with pre- tax profit down 2.8pc to £34.2m. cost-cutting plans should save £15m over the next two years and connect will dispose of its books business in 2018.

Meanwhile, it is investing in its click-and- collect business Pass My Parcel, tapping into the ecommerce trend. While the division is loss-making, the number of parcels it handled over the year to august 31 doubled to 1m.

It has also introduced a new service for in- store collections, having trialled the service with H&M. That will be rolled out across the UK next year.

connect shares climbed 13pc, or 11.75p, to 102.5p.

The FTSE 100 finished in positive territory, up 0.5pc, or 39.29 points, to 7486.50.

Acacia Mining continued its yoyo of a week as it clarified some of the details of a proposal between its largest shareholder and the government of Tanzania.

The miner climbed on Monday after Barrick gold announced it had reached an agreement with the government after three months of negotiations. But shares fell as acacia revealed on Tuesday that it knew nothing of the talks and said it would need to approve any proposals before they went ahead.

In its third-quarter results yesterday, canada-based Barrick said it was working to find a way to get the gold export ban lifted in Tanzania and that it hopes a final agreement will be reached in the first half of 2018.

In response, acacia’s shares leapt 2.7pc, or 4.9p, to 189.5p.

Sirius Minerals soared as it revealed it is in talks with one of the largest fertiliser buyers in south-east asia.

Yorkshire-based sirius is in discussions with Wilmar to sell its Poly4 fertiliser to the group for distribution in the region.

a seven-year deal could see sirius deliver up to 750,000 tonnes of the product a year.

sirius said access to the fastgrowing asian market would be an attractive opportunity to diversify its customer base. shares climbed 5.7pc, or 1.5p, to 27.82p.