19 June 2008

Flight Centre ups profit forecast

Flight Centre has raised its full-year pretax profit forecast for this year, saying it expected about 38% growth due to healthy global sales and forecast further growth in 2008/09.

Flight Centre shares jumped as much as 13%, or $2.10, to $18.53 on the announcement.

The company said it would be disappointed if it did not achieve 10%-15% pretax profit growth in the year to June  
2009, based on strong demand in its overseas businesses, which it said would make up about half the group's sales from next year.

Flight Centre said on Wednesday it sees 2007-08 pretax profit at over $210 million, up from $151.6 million before a one-off gain a year earlier and up from an earlier forecast for a pretax profit of at least $200 million.

Analysts were expecting a pretax profit of $208.7 million for the year to June 2008 and $250 million, or about 20% growth, next year.

''While our company continues to monitor market conditions globally, we are yet to encounter the challenges that retailers in some sectors have reportedly experienced,'' Flight Centre's chief financial officer, Shannon O'Brien, said in a statement.

A report by The Mole from Reuters

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