Solid start for Compass as organic revenues rise 4% - UPDATE

2nd Feb 2012 07:02

Food and support services firm Compass says that it has had a good first quarter and its expectations for the full-year remain unchanged, despite experiencing a continuing challenging macroeconomic environment in Europe. The group said that like-for-like volumes in North America and the Fast Growing & Emerging Markets continue to be robust. Encouragingly, the group said that trading in Japan is seeing a gradual return to normal activity.Shares were up 1.235% at 608.5p in mid-morning trade on Thursday.Compass, whose services include catering at sporting events, said that the players' strike in the National Basketball Association in the US (now resolved) has had a 1% adverse impact to organic revenue growth. As such, organic revenues growth was held back to around 4% (5% excluding the NBA strike) in the first quarter, above Panmure Gordon's 3.5% forecast.Meanwhile, including the impact of acquisitions, overall revenues rose over 8% on a constant currency basis."We have seen good levels of new business wins and the improved level of retention we achieved in the second half of last year has continued into the new financial year," Compass said.Panmure Gordon labelled this as a "solid" first quarter, saying that it does not expect consensus expectations of a full-year pre-tax profit of £1,088m to change at this early stage.BC