Graham Sutherland
CEO & Executive Director
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to FirstGroup’s 2026 Full Year Results Presentation. In a moment, I will hand over to Ryan to take you through the financial performance for the year. I will then provide an update on bus and rail before we take your questions at the end.
Moving on now to Slide 3. I’m pleased to report another strong year for the group. The successful execution of our U.K.-focused growth and diversification strategy has driven further earnings momentum and material shareholder returns, reinforcing our track record for delivering on our commitments.
Group adjusted revenue, which does not include the National Rail Contracts where we take substantially no revenue risk, has grown by 25% to over GBP 1.7 billion. This was largely driven by growth in First Bus revenues, aided by the acquisition of First Bus London, which completed in February 2025.
Group adjusted earnings per share for the year has increased by 5% to 20.3p, with earnings per share growth supported by the repurchase of 22 million shares during the year. As a result of our strong performance and cash generation, the Board has proposed a full year dividend of 7.2p per share, an increase of 11% against the prior year. We’re also tightening our dividend policy. And over time, we expect our dividend cover ratio to move towards 2.5x.
We’re also delighted to announce a further GBP
