Hogg Robinson hit as firms cut travel

CORPORATE travel firm Hogg Robinson said yesterday that full-year pre-tax profit had slid 39 per cent, and that it expects the current market conditions to remain challenging.

“We do not expect much change to the current market conditions during 2009 and have adjusted our cost base to reflect that expectation,” said chief executive David Radcliffe.

Hogg Robinson said companies across all sectors had cut back on corporate travel in the second half of the year, but said that its fee-based business model and flexibility for seeing it through the recession so far.

The company has also been forced to cut its own costs, reducing staff numbers during the year.

But the world’s fourth biggest corporate travel firm added that, historically, corporate travel business is more resilient than other travel-related businesses during economic uncertainty, and that it was in good shape to take advantage of the economic recovery when it takes places.

For the year ending 31 March, the company’s pre-tax profit fell to £15.4m from £25.2m, while revenue rose 5.7 per cent to £351.3m.

Hogg Robinson said it had reduced its year-end net debt by £25m to £85m, but axed its final dividend to save cash.

As a result, Hogg Robinson’s total dividend for the year was 1.2p per share, compared with last year’s total dividend of 4p per share. Hogg Robinson shares closed 1 per cent lower at 23p.