“Shameful” Southern rail owner set for best one-day stock market performance since 2009
Southern Rail owner Go-Ahead Group is set for its best one-day performance on the stock market since 2009.
Go-Ahead was slammed as "shameful" as it reported a 27 per cent growth in statutory pre-tax profits this morning.
But investors are flocking to the company, with shares currently up more than nine per cent to 2,184p.
If the nine per cent increase remains, it will have been Go-Ahead's best single day on the stock market since 4 March 2009, when its share price increased by more than 10 per cent to 954p.
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Read more: Embarrassment, bailout and failure: Politicians blast Southern's £20m fund
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RMT general secretary Mick Cash said it was “shameful that they have opted to hoard cash instead of protecting the travelling public”.
"While Go-Ahead have been driving Britain's biggest rail franchise into total meltdown the cash has been sloshing through the boardroom at obscene levels. This is reward for total failure on a scale which is off the map,” Cash said in a statement.
Just a fraction of these profits would be enough to keep the guards on Southern trains, keep the passengers safe and resolve the industrial dispute between RMT and the company. It is shameful that they have opted to hoard cash instead of protecting the travelling public.
This profit announcement comes just a day after the Government propped up Southern with yet another £20 million of taxpayers cash. The company could clearly fund improvements themselves if they weren't wholly dedicated to trousering fare-payers money in shed loads.
"It is also deeply cynical that Southern/Go Ahead have brought forward this mega profit announcement so it doesn't clash with the strike action by guards next week. They are a money-raking disaster that has turned Britain's railways into a global laughing stock and they should be slung out and replaced by the public sector option.
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The Twitterati are also out in full force this morning:
https://twitter.com/dannyjwilkins/status/771607116662452224
https://twitter.com/PaulDJMellor/status/771605538350075906
https://twitter.com/jakeshoolheifer/status/771604429367750657
https://twitter.com/Re1axinmood/status/771603222729371648
https://twitter.com/determinedmoth/status/771601933232578560
https://twitter.com/emilytaaffe/status/771598692822298624
The Go-Ahead Group results have been reported at the end of a summer filled with disruption for Southern customers.
The busy commuter service beset by delays, cancellations and strikes in a long-running dispute over the role of guards.
There was some welcome news for commuters yesterday when RMT announced a planned strike for next Wednesday had been suspended.
Go-Ahead owns 65 per cent of Govia, which is a joint venture with France’s Keolis and operates Southern as part of Govia Thameslink Railway.
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