Economics
Whitbread Beats Estimates as Costa and Premier Revenue Jumps
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Whitbread Plc’s full-year earnings rose 16.5 percent, beatings analysts’ estimates, after sales jumped at its Premier Inn hotels and Costa Coffee chain. The company plans to raise its annual dividend by about 20 percent.
Underlying pretax profit climbed to 411.8 million pounds ($692.5 million), or 179 pence a share, in the year to Feb. 27 from 353.4 million pounds, or 149 pence, a year earlier, the Dunstable, England-based company said in a statement today. The average of 14 analyst estimates was for earnings of 401 million pounds, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.