Go-Ahead warns coronavirus to impact travel, sees profit lower

LONDON, March 12 (Reuters) - British transport company Go-Ahead Group warned that coronavirus is likely to impact travel patterns, without saying how, as it guided that annual profit would be slightly lower than expected, hit by bad weather in recent weeks.

Go-Ahead, which runs rail and bus services in the UK, Norway and Germany, said that its UK regional bus business would be less profitable than expected over the full-year due to higher costs and the impact of storms which reduced travel demand.

Coronavirus could hurt its finances further in the second half of its financial year which runs to 27 June.

"While it is unclear how the situation relating to coronavirus will evolve in the coming weeks, travel patterns in the second half of the year are likely to be impacted," the company said in a statement on Thursday.

(Reporting by Sarah Young, editing by Paul Sandle)