Compass Group FY profit rises 33%

LONDON: Compass Group Plc, the world's biggest caterer, reported a 33 percent rise in full-year pretax profit, at the top end of market expectations, on the back of new business wins, a weak pound, and cost cutting.

The British company, which feeds office and factory workers, soldiers and schoolchildren, said yesterday underlying pretax profit for the year to end September reached 784 million pounds ($1.3 billion), up from 589 million the year before.

Market expectations had ranged between 715 million pounds and 788 million, with the consensus at 764 million, according to a Thomson Reuters poll of 18 analysts.