- Passenger numbers still below pre-pandemic levels
- Capital expenditure falls again
Go-Ahead’s (GOG) half-year results are a complicated read. Figures for 2021 have been radically restated, with pre-tax profit shunted up by £26mn, and net assets pushed down by £52mn. There is also an abundance of adjustments for 2022, together with explanatory notes.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise; the public transport provider has had an eventful year. In January, its shares were briefly suspended because it failed to publish its results on time. The delay arose from a scandal in which Go-Ahead was stripped of its Southeastern rail franchise, after failing to declare tens of millions of pounds of taxpayer funding. Other historic franchises and onerous contract provisions in Germany have added to the financial confusion.