(Reuters) - British transport company Stagecoach Group Plc (L:SGC) on Wednesday reported a 15.3 percent drop in its full-year pretax profit as economic conditions hurt its domestic bus business.
The company reported a pretax profit of 158.7 million pounds for the year ended April 29. Full-year revenue rose to 3.94 billion pounds from 3.87 billion pounds a year earlier.
"Looking ahead, we remain cautious on the short-term outlook for revenue trends and operating profit in our bus and rail markets in the UK," the company said in a statement.
Stagecoach said it would finalise new commercial terms with the Department for Transport regarding the Virgin Trains East Coast rail franchise during the next year.
The East Coast line is the main rail link between London and Edinburgh, the Scottish capital, and it serves over 20 million customers a year.
The company also said that while it expected to incur losses under the current contract, the business would be profitable from 2019.
Stagecoach has a 90 percent shareholding in Virgin Trains East Coast, which operates the East Coast rail franchise.
The company recently lost the franchise to run South West trains to a consortium of FirstGroup (L:FGP) and Hong Kong’s MTR (HK:0066)
Rival Go-Ahead Group (L:GOG) said last week that it was on track to meet its full-year profit forecast as strong bus passenger numbers in some regions offset still slow revenue growth at Southern railways following strike action.