Whitbread begins £300m share buy-back

Source: Stock Market Digital

Date :29/08/2007 09:21:36

Whitbread, which owns the Premier Inn and Costa chains, has begun a £300 million share buy-back programme today.

Chief Executive Alan Parker announced the buy-back in a trading statement for the 24 weeks to 16 August.

However, the plan to lever the group's balance sheet by issuing bonds secured on the hotel and restaurant assets, revealed at the time of the preliminary results in April, although advanced, will not go ahead yet due to current conditions in the debt markets.

The group said that while it still intended to raise the new debt, secured against its hotels and restaurants, it would have to wait given “current conditions” in the City.

In the statement, the company reported that its total sales for the 24 weeks ended August 16, 2007 grew 11.3 percent, while like-for-like sales growth was 6.6 percent.

For the period, Premier Inn total sales increased 14.5 percent, and like-for-like sales rose 11.0 percent.

Restaurants total sales grew 3.5 percent, with a like-for-like sales growth of 2 percent.

In its Costa coffee shop division, total sales for the 24 weeks climbed 23.5 percent, driven by new store openings and the strong 7.2 percent growth in like-for-like sales.

Whitbread will announce its interim results on October 16 2007, for the 26 weeks to August 30 2007.

August 29 2007