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April 4 (Reuters) – British holiday group Saga SAGA.L on Tuesday reported a swing to full-year profit on robust demand for its cruise and tour bookings, and said it expects its travel unit to return to profit in this year.
Saga is benefiting from a rebound in the global travel industry after the COVID-19 pandemic pushed the company to losses. However, its insurance unit — which includes its underwriting arm whose potential sale to Australia’s Open was terminated last month — has been battling high claims inflation.
The company, which sells cruise holidays as well as insurance to over 50-year-olds, said its bookings for travel were significantly ahead of the same point last year. Its revenue from the unit jumped more than 10 times to 108.4 million pounds($134.45 million) for the year ended Jan. 31.
Saga also said it remains in discussions over a possible sale of its insurance underwriting business, and expects to conclude the process in the second half of the year.
The company reported an underlying profit before tax of 21.5 million pounds for the year, versus a loss of 6.7 million pounds reported a year ago.
($1 = 0.8063 pounds)
(Reporting by Sinchita Mitra in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Uttaresh Venkateshwaran)
((Sinchita.Mitra@thomsonreuters.com;))
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