UK: Young & Co. full-year profit falls 76% after Ram Brewery sale

Young & Co.'s Brewery Plc, which has more pubs on England's River Thames than any rival, said full- year profit fell 76 percent after selling its Ram Brewery in south London, Bloomberg reported May 29.

Net income for the 52 weeks ended March 29 dropped to 9.58 million pounds ($18.9 million), or 20 pence a share, from 39.5 million pounds, or 83 pence, a year earlier, the London-based company said in a statement distributed by the Regulatory News Service today. Young had a 46.6 million-pound pretax gain from the sale of the Ram Brewery site in Wandsworth a year earlier.

Revenue increased 6.6 percent to 122.1 million pounds, and ``managed house'' sales in the first eight weeks of the current financial year climbed 3.4 percent, the company said.

``Whilst the short term pressures facing the business and the wider U.K. economy are likely to continue to be challenging, we believe that we are in a strong position to meet them,'' Young said in its statement.

29 May, 2008