Shares in the company tumbled on Thursday by as much as 22% before recovering some ground, after failed to meet expectations. It had forecast fourth-quarter earnings before taxation, interest, depreciation and amortisation of between £25m and £30m, but only delivered £22.3m, a figure up 57% on the same period last year.
It said that total transaction value for the quarter was up 79% to £398m, and for the year the figure stood at £992.3m.
Lastminute said that it slipped back into loss of £77.2m when exceptional items from a number of acquisitions were added, compared with a loss of £47.7m last year. Pre-tax profit excluding exceptional items for the year was £4.6m, compared with £200,000 in 2003.
Brent Hoberman, co-founder and CEO of Lastminute.com, said: "Our acquisition strategy has given us the necessary scale to compete across our core European market, but this has come at the expense of a higher cost base."
The acquisitions included Med Hotels, First Option and Gemstone Travel, as well as Lastminute.de. Hoberman has ruled out further acquisitions in 2005.
Allan Leighton, presenting his last set of results as chairman before he quits the company in December, said: "The focus for the 2005 financial year is to integrate the the acquired businesses in all countries, remove duplication and overlap in operations and demonstrate the scalability of the model. This process will reduce the cash cost base by some £13m in the 2005 financial year and £16m annually thereafter."
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