Lastminute closer to breaking even

THE break-even point for lastminute.com came a little closer in its second quarter as margins improved and transactions grew quarter by quarter.

Losses for the three months to 31 March were down 50.4% to £5.3m, and the British and French businesses made an operational profit. Chief executive Brent Hoberman said that reaching operational profitability had been a surprise.

'It was better than we thought - we had indicated to the market that it would be a quarter later,' he said.

Once again, the proportion of subscribers who go on to make a purchase has improved. Some 18.3% of subscribers now buy lastminute's travel services, against 11% in the previous quarter. It now has a total of 820,000 unique customers at the end of March 2002.

Marketing spend per customer is down from £26 to £5.90. Strong sales of package holidays and hotels were behind the turnover growth. Total transaction value for the quarter grew by 46.6% to £40.8m. Gross margins rose by just over 1% to 15%.

Cash balances are still strong at £34.7m. The shares were up 2p at 87 1/4p.