THE dark clouds of a failed privatisation bid for Flight Centre have finally blown away, with the travel agent posting a 51 per cent jump in net profit after tax for 2007, a result driven by a strong second half performance.

The former private equity target today posted a net profit of $120.82 million, a more than 50 per cent increase on its 2006 performance of $79.91 million - a result described at the time as "average" by managing director Graham Turner.

Clear skies forecast for 2008

And, according to Flight Centre, the skies will remain clear in 2008, with forecast 10 to 15 per cent transaction and profit growth.

The 2007 financial year result was driven by a strong second half, when after tax profit grew by 47 per cent and revenues by 21 per cent.

Mr Turner attributed the second half result to getting Flight Centre's house in order, to a strong travel market and a buoyant global economy.

"I think most operators had a strong market, and I think we managed to take advantage of that with our operations, getting our act together, better than they probably have been in the past couple of years," he said.

Around the nation

Region by region, Flight Centre said it performed strongly in Queensland, Victoria and Tasmania, and in Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory.

However, the NSW market was weak, although there were high expectations of turnaround in 2008.

"NSW is a big area for us, and we had some operational issues which we've sorted out, but there is still a bit of work to do there," Mr Turner said.

New Zealand profits were "disappointing" the company said, although "signs of improvement were evident".

Meanwhile, the South African, UK, North American and Indian businesses performed strongly.

Corporate travel

It is these overseas businesses where Flight Centre could see most growth in the 2008 financial year, particularly in corporate travel, Mr Turner said.

A new Dubai office, opened in July, also should begin to have an impact.

"We're modestly growing our retail in most places, and that corporate side is still an important focus for us, particularly in North America, UK and places like India and China," he said.

"Australia will be more modest in the corporate side.

"We're pretty confident Dubai is already looking good."

Flight Centre flags acquisitions

Mr Turner also flagged acquisitions in fiscal 2008, small and large, but declined to provide detail.

"There will be some acquisitions, small and strategic acquisitions, maybe even one or two large ones over the next 12 months," he said.

"Generally the larger ones are overseas, looking at (areas) that we want to get more involved in."

Asked about the failed private equity bid for the company by Pacific Equity Partners (PEP), and the potential of another in the future, Mr Turner said "there won't be any private equity activity for some time".

The PEP bid was canned after it was deemed inadequate by independent expert Ernst & Young.

The deal valued the company at about $1.6 billion, below Ernst & Young's valuation of $1.9 billion to $2 billion.

"We tried hard to do an arrangement with private equity but the privatisation failed, and we won't be visiting that in the short to medium term," he said.

Flight Centre announced a final dividend of 46 cents, bringing the full year dividend to 66 cents, up 27 per cent.

At 12.20pm (AEST), its shares (flt.ASX:Quote,News) were up 60 cents, or 3.19 per cent, to $19.40.

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