(Reuters) - British travel food group SSP (L:SSPG) said on Wednesday that coronavirus-led store closures and travel restrictions reduced its first-half sales by up to 150 million pounds, as the company swung to an underlying pretax loss.
SSP, which operates food and beverage outlets in airports worldwide, also launched a shares for dividend deal aimed at having shareholders reinvest this year's payout of up to 26.8 million pounds in the company to enhance its liquidity.
Shares in the company were down 1.6% at 301.6 pence in early trade.
The owner of the Upper Crust and Ritazza brands has already raised a total of 550 million pounds from Britain's emergency funding scheme and a share issue.
It posted an underlying pretax loss of 10.7 million pounds, for the six months ended March 31, compared to a profit of 54.2 million pounds a year ago.
"We began to see a material impact on trading in our Asia Pacific region from the escalation of the virus in late January and throughout February, following which trading deteriorated rapidly across the entire Group during March," the company said.
The company, which has operations in 35 countries and over 550 brands, estimated that the pandemic reduced its first-half operating profit by around 65 million pounds.
Like-for-like sales were also down 8.4%.
The company said its approach to reopening units will be systematic and it will look to open units selectively in larger multi-unit locations which will ensure it can operate profitably even at lower levels of footfall.