Accounting change on bills boosts Ryanair

Even the best of us get a bit bamboozled when the men in suits go on about depreciation, goodwill and how various bits and bobs in a company's accounts are treated for tax purposes. But Ryanair is one major beneficiary of FRS 12, a new accounting requirement which covers the way a company like Ryanair treats its maintenance bills in its accounts. With a large fleet of aircraft maintenance is a pretty big element in Ryanair's costs and any changes in how these costs are treated in the accounts are hugely important.

The changes bring Ryanair into line with how other airlines treated their maintenance costs, and according to Morgan Stanley Dean Witter analysts should add £7.5 million (€9.5 million) to Ryanair's current-year bottom-line profits and £6.8 million to last year's profits.

The end result of this is that company broker Davy has hiked its March 1999 profits forecast from £48.9 million to £58.9 million and the earnings forecast from 28.1 cents to 33.5 cents. MSDW does not give a revised profits figure in its research note, but is expecting March 1999 earnings per share of 33 cents, and has upgraded the shares to a "strong buy" and set a 2000 target price of €8.50.