Results for year ended 30 September 2020

SSP Group, a leading operator of food and beverage outlets in travel locations worldwide, announces its financial results for the year ended 30 September 2020. SSP responded rapidly to Covid-19, taking extensive action to protect its people, raise additional liquidity and reduce its cost base, leaving it strongly placed to capitalise on the recovery of the travel sector.

Commenting on the results, Simon Smith, CEO of SSP Group, said:

“Covid-19 continues to have an unprecedented impact on the travel industry and on SSP’s businesses in all geographies. We have taken rapid and decisive action to reduce costs, preserve cash and to substantially strengthen the Group’s financial position. I want to thank our teams for their dedication and professionalism during this time, especially when faced with extremely difficult decisions.

Our priority continues to be the health, safety and welfare of our people and our customers, and this has been front of mind as we’ve re-opened our units. By renegotiating rents, rationalising our menus and reducing our unit overheads, we’ve created a new, more flexible operating model. This has allowed us to respond rapidly to passenger demand, successfully re-opening more than a third of our units by the end of September and delivering an important service to the travelling public.

“Whilst we expect passenger numbers to remain subdued over the winter, we are optimistic that, alongside good progress with the vaccination programme, we will see a significant upturn in both domestic and international travel from the Spring. We are ready to respond quickly. The actions we are taking to rebuild the business will put us in a strong position to capitalise on the recovery as well as future new business opportunities, enabling us to deliver long term sustainable growth for the benefit of all our stakeholders.”

Financial highlights:

● Revenue of £1,433.1m: down 47.9% at constant currency1; 48.7% at actual exchange rates.

● Like-for-like sales2 down 50.8%: heavily impacted by Covid-19 and the closure of most of the global travel markets since March.

● Operating loss of £363.9m on a reported basis under IFRS 16, including non-underlying net operating costs of £48.5m. On a pro forma IAS 17 basis, the underlying operating loss3 was £211.7m (2019: £221.1m profit). 2

● Loss before tax of £425.8m on a reported basis under IFRS 16. On a pro forma IAS 17 basis, the underlying loss before tax3 was £239.6m (2019: £203.2m profit).

● Basic loss per share of 76.1 pence on a reported basis under IFRS 16. On a pro forma IAS 17 basis, underlying basic loss per share3 of 45.4 pence (2019: underlying basic earnings per share of 29.1 pence).

● Net debt of £692.0m on a pro forma IAS 17 basis, up from £483.4m at 30 September 2019.

● Further covenant amendments recently agreed, including a waiver of the leverage test until reinstated in March 2022.

● Liquidity position remains strong, with cash and undrawn available facilities of around £520m at the end of September.

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1 Constant currency is based on average 2019 exchange rates weighted over the financial year by 2019 results. 

2 Like-for-like sales represent revenues generated in an equivalent period in each financial period in outlets which have been open for a minimum of 12 months. Units temporarily closed as a result of Covid-19 have not been excluded for the purposes of the like-for-like calculation. Like-for-like sales are presented on a constant currency basis. 

3 Stated on an underlying basis, which excludes non-underlying items as further explained in the section on Alternative Performance Measures (APMs) on pages 23-25.