The company, which operates bus and rail services in Britain, posted full-year pretax profit of 185.0 million pounds in the 12 months to the end of April, 2.4 percent higher than last year.

The firm, which also runs services in North America and Europe, was expected to post profit of 182.1 million pounds according to a Thomson Reuters poll of 13 analysts.

(Reporting By Costas Pitas, Editing by Paul Sandle)