Saga swings to full-year profit

(Sharecast News) - Saga said on Wednesday that it swung to a full-year profit, exceeding guidance thanks to strong performances in the travel and insurance segments. In the year to the end of January 2026, the company - which specialises in products for the over-50s - swung to a pre-tax profit of £2.1m from a loss of £160.2m the year before.

Underlying pre-tax profit was up 19% at £44.2m despite expected higher finance costs, while underlying revenue rose 11% to £654.6m, with growth across both travel and insurance. This resulted in a 16% jump in trading EBITDA to £134.9m.

Saga said the leverage ratio fell to 3.7x from 4.4x. Looking ahead, the company remains confident in achieving at least £100m of annual underlying pre-tax profit and the leverage ratio falling below 2.0x by January 2030.

Chief executive Mike Hazell said: "This has been a transformational year for Saga. The restructuring of our insurance business, and the partnership with Ageas, derisks and simplifies our operating model, creating a more stable platform for growth. Alongside this, we continued to see growth across all our travel businesses, driven in particular by the newly combined management team's relentless focus on delivering differentiated travel experiences designed with the needs of our customers in mind.

"The result was an excellent trading performance that drove growth across all our core businesses, and a strong financial performance, with underlying profit before tax and the leverage ratio significantly ahead of our original guidance."

At 0815 BST, the shares were up 9.9% at 644.16p.

See latest RNS on Investegate