British Airways owner International Consolidated Airlines Group (IAG) has scaled back its forecasts for airline capacity over the next three years as it posted a rise in passenger numbers last month.
The airline giant reduced its forecasts for expected growth in available seats per kilometre to 3.4% for the years from 2019 to 2023, from its previous prediction of 6%.
IAG also reduced its forecasts for growth in earnings per share to 10% from 12% due to lower planned capacity growth.
However, it held firm on long-term profit margin forecasts as it said it still expects to deliver an operating profit margin of between 12% and 15% for the next three years.
READ MORE: J Sainsbury’s profits down 15% after closure costs
It made the announcement as it also revealed a 3.4% jump in passenger numbers for October against the same period last year.
IAG saw passenger numbers rise to 10.3 million in October, from 10 million in the same month for 2018 on the back of growth across its core brands.
This represented a slowdown compared to the company's total growth over the year to date, which has seen passenger numbers increase by 4.7% over the past nine months.
The group reported a 4.9% rise in passengers on domestic flights, while numbers travelling across Europe rose by 1.6%.
Passenger revenue per kilometre, one of the industry's preferred metrics, increased by 4.8% driven by double-figure growth for domestic flights and those in Latin America and the Caribbean.
British Airways saw passenger numbers rise a more modest 1.1% to 4.2 million. The airline has seen passenger numbers increase by 1.2% over the year-to-date, IAG said.
Scottish care home investor Target Healthcare has snapped up 39 properties across the UK in an £81.3 million deal.
The Stirling-based real estate investment trust has agreed to buy seven care homes in Yorkshire, a facility in Dorset and 31 retirement apartments in Gloucestershire.
READ MORE: Scots tyre family earn millions from sale to car giant
The acquisitions follow an £80 million share placing by the company in September, which it said would fund expansion opportunities.
Target said the acquisitions had been identified prior to the fundraiser and added that it was "very pleasing" that it was able to use the funds so swiftly.
The purchases of five of the care homes have been completed, while contracts have been exchanged on the two other care homes, which will all be let back to current tenants.
John Flannelly, head of investment at Target Fund Managers, said: "Having completed the successful September fundraising, it is very pleasing to have deployed the proceeds so soon after, in a group of assets that meet our strict investment criteria and at yields that are consistent with previous similar acquisitions.
"At the same time, we are further strengthening the group's relationship with existing tenants whilst delivering continued portfolio diversification, a key focus for the group.
"There is continued strong investor appetite for the stable and sustainable long-duration rental income available from care home real estate, and we continue to develop our pipeline of further opportunities, leveraging our deep sector experience and proprietary in-house research capabilities."
The acquisitions came as Target reported a quarterly business update which revealed a 0.7% increase in like-for-like value to £511.4 million across its portfolio for the period to September 30.
Honda has become the latest car maker to report weaker earnings as global demand softens.
The company said its profit in the July-September period fell 6.7% from a year earlier to 196.5 billion yen (£1.4 billion) as vehicle and motorcycle sales slipped.
READ MORE: Glasgow's biggest office building takes shape, from above
The Tokyo-based firm said an unfavourable exchange rate also hurt earnings.
Honda's quarterly revenue declined 2.9% to 3.7 trillion yen (£26 billion) as sales declined in the US, Japan, the rest of Asia and Europe.
Honda, which makes the Odyssey minivan and Asimo robot, said higher tax expenses also hurt results.
Honda lowered its full-year net profit forecast for the fiscal year through to March 2020 to 575 billion yen (£4 billion).
That is down from the 645 billion yen (£4.6 billion) estimate given in August, and below the 610 billion yen (£4.3 billion) earned in the previous fiscal year.
Honda said its financial services business did well, helping to offset some of the damage from other divisions.
Honda officials acknowledged that more needs to be done to reduce costs. They said a promised restructuring is under way.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article