British Airways and Iberia owner IAG today reported a 27% rise in operating profit to 4.4 billion euros (£3.6 billion) amid strong demand across its core markets. Revenues rose 9% to 32.1 billion euros (£26.5 billion), including growth of 11.4% in the final quarter of the year.
Chief executive Luis Gallego said: “We are delivering world-class margins and returns, in line with the targets we set out to the market just over a year ago.”. The group, whose shares have more than doubled in the past year, has announced a final dividend of six euro cents a share, taking the total outlay for the year to 435 million euros (£359 million).
IAG also intends to return up to a further one billion euros of excess capital to shareholders, adding to the $350 million buyback announced in November. A poor finish to last night’s Wall Street session means the FTSE 100 index is set to open 0.5% or about 47 points lower.
Tariffs and inflation uncertainty left the S&P 500 index 1.6% lower and the Nasdaq down by 2.8%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average reversed 0.5%. Big fallers included Nvidia, which dropped 8% despite the previous evening’s forecast-beating revenues guidance for the current quarter.
The FTSE 100 index outperformed yesterday with a rise of 24.75 points or 0.3%, boosted by a results-day rise of more than 15%. The pound is at $1.258 while Bitcoin remains under pressure after the cryptocurrency’s price fell below the $80,000 threshold.
