Press releases

Speaking today at Arriva plc's Annual General Meeting Sir Richard Broadbent, chairman, said:

When we announced our preliminary results for the year ended 31 December 2005, on 2 March 2006, we reported a strong performance across the Group. Continued growth through new contract wins in our mainland European operations and firm management in our existing businesses ensured rising fuel costs were robustly managed and profits were successfully maintained in our first full year without the Northern rail franchise.

Some years ago, we identified the growth opportunity arising from the liberalisation of public transport markets in mainland Europe. Our strategy of selective investment in these markets continues to deliver growth with revenue in our mainland European operations doubling over the past three years and margins increasing. In 2005, rail contract wins in the Netherlands and Germany; expansion of our bus operations in Italy, Denmark and Sweden, and successful entry into the German bus market further strengthened our position as a leading European transport operator and increased our resilience in the highly competitive transport market.

In February we won a nine-year contract to operate Pågatåg regional train services in the south of Sweden, securing our entry in this rail market from June 2007. We have also increased our presence, and potential, in the German transport market after agreeing to acquire Bils, a 118 bus operation in North-Rhine Westphalia.

We completed the repositioning of the Group with the sale of our vehicle rental business earlier this year. This will provide further resources to pursue our business strategy and grow our core business. Arriva remains in a strong position to benefit in the increasingly liberalising European transport market and we see further opportunities for our UK bus and rail operations through innovation and encouraging greater use of public transport.

Bob Davies retires as Arriva's chief executive at the end of the AGM. Bob's vision and leadership has transformed Arriva into a leading public transport organisation. The Group is in very good shape. It is strategically focused, delivering consistent results and has an excellent management team. Our succession planning means that we are ready to move forward and I am confident Arriva will continue to thrive under David Martin's leadership.

We have maintained the positive start to the year we announced at our preliminary results: trading is in line with expectations. Our strategy remains to generate shareholder value by ensuring our current businesses reach their full potential and delivering strong growth through targeted acquisitions and tendering opportunities.