Bookings boom lifts Lastminute

SHARES in lastminute.com hit a three-year high after the dotcom survivor unveiled record forward bookings, dispelling fears of a lull over the crucial summer months.

Chairman Allan Leighton said the firm had coped well with a difficult trading environment still affected by the hangover from Sars and the Iraqi conflict.

The company made a profit of £4.1m for the three months ended June, from losses of £1.7m in the year-earlier period. That's before tax and one-offs. Total transaction value hit £150.9m. The shares rose 10 1/2p to 221 1/2p.

'Summer bookings have started strongly for the key fourth quarter and we remain confident of a positive outcome for the full year,' Leighton said.

Lastminute's registered subscriber base is now more than 7.5m, up 6.4% on the three months to the end of March. The order book is £61.1m, almost double that of a year ago.

Analysts say lastminute is in its best shape since floating three years ago with a value of £716m. Its market capitalisation is now £615m, after a 174% rise in its share price to 211p over the past five months.

The recruitment company behind Monday's appointment of new chief operating officer Ian McCaig, the former managing director of Nokia UK, took £38,000 of its payment in shares, reflecting the confidence in the business.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in