Lastminute.com, the internet company that became a by-word for the misplaced optimism of the dotcom heyday, has pulled off a turnaround by posting its first-ever profit.
The online retailer moved into the black for the first time in the final quarter of its current financial year, from July to September.
Lastminute.com today announced pre-tax profits £302,000 for the period, although the figure excludes one-off costs. During the quarter, the most important for the travel sector, the total transaction value of items sold on its site was £112.4m, an 84% increase on the previous quarter and 140% over the same period last time.
The group still posted a loss for the financial year as a whole, although this was reduced to £38.1m from £53.7m the previous year.
However, analysts are forecasting the group will make its first annual pre-tax profit next year, when stripping out one-off charges, and its first bottom-line pre-tax profits in 2004. "We are absolutely delighted - it is our strongest quarter, determined by the travel sector, and now we are in profit," said David Howell, the company's finance director. Earlier this year Lastminute.com paid £12m for holiday provider The Destination Group and spent £9m snapping up online flight booking service Travelselect.com.
"Organically the business has grown by 55% during the year and we supported that by key acquisitions," Mr Howell said, adding the group continued to be on the lookout for acquisitions to boost the business. The group said its new financial year - starting at the beginning of October - had begun strongly and it was confident of "another year of sustained and improving performance".
"No company is recession-proof but I think we are well placed with a broad range of products to fare well in a recessionary environment," Mr Howell added.
Lastminute.com floated at the height of the internet boom in March 2000 but never returned to its debut share price of 380p, slumping to 17p in September last year.
Shares in the group were down 5p to 111.5p when the market opened this morning.
