Applegreen shares rise on UK expansion go-ahead

Shares in Applegreen rose as the petrol forecourt retailer said it had not suffered any significant hit in the run up to late June vote by the UK to depart the EU and has no major plans to slow its expansion plans in the North and in Britain.

However, the company said it was still cautious and though too early to make a definitive call on the effect of the Brexit vote, the drop in the value of sterling against the euro “will obviously impact on our consolidated figures”.

“Trading since the end of June has been positive and has shown improvement particularly in the UK,” said Applegreen.

“Apart from the impact of the weaker sterling on the translation of our earnings, we expect our full-year performance to be in line with expectations.”

For the first six months to the end of June, Applegreen reported €555.9m in sales, up 7.4% from a year earlier.

Pre-tax profit more than doubled to €7.5m, and net profit rose to €6.49m from €2.7m a year earlier.

Applegreen shares yesterday rose more than 2% to €4.85, rebounding from a trough of around €3.90 reached in the immediate weeks after the June 23 vote. The shares are, however, still trading almost 15% lower from the start of the year.

Shares of Irish-based companies with significant operations in Britain were hit after sterling slumped against the euro in the wake of the referendum. Sterling has rallied in recent days but, at 83.8p, has lost about 10% of its value against the euro since June 23.

Fears that the UK was heading into a sharp slump following the Brexit slump have since abated.

Applegreen sales were flat in the UK in the first six months, while those in the Republic climbed 12.7%.