SSP Group Launches £50m Buyback as Q4 Sales Rise 4%

SSP Group (LON: SSPG), which runs food and drink outlets in airports and railway stations, said today that fourth-quarter like-for-like sales rose 4% and that it will buy back up to £50m of its shares. It expects full-year earnings per share of about 14.0p, which it described as in line with market expectations.

SSP shares are down around 4% following the update. They closed yesterday at 188p, down from 191p the day before and 14.3% below the 52-week high of 219.4p set in the week of the 10th of August.

Like-for-like sales, which measure growth at existing outlets and exclude openings and closures, were led by the UK and Ireland at 9%. North America grew 2%, Continental Europe 3% and the Asia Pacific and Eastern Mediterranean and Gulf region 1%. Full-year revenue is expected at about £3.8bn.

The Middle East conflict, which began at the end of February, is still weighing on that last region. Gulf volumes have recovered to 90% of prior-year levels, but volumes in the Eastern Mediterranean, Asia Pacific and India remain lower.

The earnings figure is up about 18% on last year. The average of 14 analyst forecasts is 13.53p, within a range of 10.86p to 14.32p. Operating profit of about £230m is slightly below plan, so earnings were held up by lower minority interests (profit paid to joint-venture partners) and lower tax.

Free cash flow, the cash left after running costs, investment and interest, is about £70m. That is an underlying improvement of about £140m to £150m on last year, but chief executive Patrick Coveney said it would land modestly below what SSP had expected.

While we expect free cash flow to land modestly below our prior expectation for FY26, we expect to drive a very material year-on-year underlying improvement.

Patrick Coveney, CEO, SSP Group

The buyback runs from Monday to no later than the 12th of October 2027, with broker Panmure Liberum executing it and the shares cancelled. At yesterday’s market value of £1,387m it equals about 3.6% of the company. Full-year results are due on the 8th of December.