MELBOURNE - Travel agent Flight Centre Ltd today lifted its profit guidance for 2007/08, following "continuing healthy sales growth globally" during the second half.
Flight Centre said it now expects pre-tax profit to exceed A$210 million ($265 million) for the 12 months to June 30, 2008.
Flight Centreshares jumped 10 per cent on the ASX after the announcement.
The company said it would be disappointed if it did not achieve 10-15 per cent pretax profit growth in the year to June 2009, based on strong demand in its overseas businesses, which it said would make up about half the group's sales from next year.
Flight Centre said today it sees 2007/08 pretax profit at over A$210 million, up from A$151.6 million before a one-off gain a year earlier and up from an earlier forecast for a pretax profit of at least A$200 million.
Analysts were expecting a pretax profit of A$208.7 ($263.80) million for the year to June 2008 and A$250 ($316) million, or about 20 per cent growth, next year.
"While our company continues to monitor market conditions globally, we are yet to encounter the challenges that retailers in some sectors have reportedly experienced," Flight Centre's chief financial officer, Shannon O'Brien, said in a statement.
