FIRSTGROUP’S shares surged 10 per cent yesterday, adding £100 million to the company’s stock market worth, as the City welcomed Matthew Gregory’s promotion to chief executive and the promise of renewed growth in the US school-bus division.
The promotion of chief financial officer Mr Gregory, who had been acting as interim chief operating officer since May, will see the Aberdeen-based group’s chairman, Wolfhart Hauser, revert to a non-executive role. Former chief executive Tim O’Toole resigned with immediate effect in May.
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Mr Hauser said: “Since his appointment as interim COO in May, Matthew has demonstrated the combination of strong leadership skills and strategic decisiveness, which has allowed us to make progress in a number of key areas. Having conducted a thorough selection process, which considered external and internal candidates, the board unanimously concluded that Matthew is the right person to take on the role of chief executive.”
FirstGroup shares finished up 8.3p or 10.4% at 87.95p. The company reported revenues of £3.3 billion for the six months to September 30, up by 19.2% on its previous first half. Its underlying first-half operating profits rose by 3.4% to £92.4 million.
Mr Gregory said US school-bus business First Student’s success in the bidding season for contracts would see the group’s “largest business return to growth as planned”.
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He flagged the completion in September of the roll-out of contactless payment across the UK by First Bus. Mr Gregory declared that this, together with other actions on revenue and costs, had “helped First Bus to achieve strong margin improvement in the period”.
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