Beleaguered cruise and tour operator All Leisure (ALLG:AIM) is again in the wars as geo-political strife and operational upheaval sparked a damaging profits warning.
The £6.5 million microcap lost 32 cruising days in the first half to 30 April due to maintenance on its Minerva and Voyager ships. Conflict in Syria has also reduced the number of tour bookings to Turkey by 54% and ongoing troubles in the Ukraine are affecting cruises in its key Black Sea area.
So while the company did manage to narrow its pre-tax loss from £15 million to £12 million in the period, revenue fell 6.5% to £45.9 million, and the shares have plunged, down 24% to 9.5p.
All Leisure says the geo-political events, together with increased price competition in the cruise industry, will negatively affect its profitability ‘in the second half and beyond’.
‘With the company continuing to experience these difficult trading conditions the board anticipates that full year performance will be below expectations and now expects the business to make a small loss for the full year,’ says chairman Roger Allard.
Last year All Leisure completed a significant cost-cutting exercise which resulted in it almost halving its annual losses. But Allard warned at the time that the outlook remained challenging due to the slow economic recovery and strong US dollar.
