National Express profit falls 12 pct after franchise loss

LONDON, Feb 27 (Reuters) - National Express Group full year profit fell by 12.4 percent after the loss of its East Anglia train franchise but the UK-based bus, coach and train operator said it was confident it could grow profit in its coach and bus services.

The firm said group pre-tax profits stood at 143.7 million pounds, slightly above consensus expectations, in the year ending Dec. 3, down from 164.1 million the year before.

Group revenue was up 3 percent to 1.89 billion pounds, slightly higher than the consensus expectations of 1.86 billion pounds according to analysts.

Jaime Rowbotham at Morgan Stanley (Berlin: DWD.BE - news) said profit before tax was in line with expectations and pointed to good performance in the Spanish and British rail divisions of the group.

Group Chief Executive Dean Finch welcomed the results and said that the company was beginning to overcome problems it had suffered from in 2012 when profits were down due to a cut in the British government's concessionary travel support to disabled and elderly passengers.

"National Express (LSE: NEX.L - news) has made important progress in 2013," he said. "These results show how we have been able to address the headwinds facing the Group at the start of last year."

Revenue from its North American operations, where it operates school buses, was up 10 percent at over $1 billion the company.

The company said it proposed a dividend of 10 pence/ share, up 3 percent year-on-year.

"We intend to grow profit across all of our non-rail businesses and develop our rail business by winning new franchises," the company said in a statement.