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02 May 2025
Trainline Plc : On the right track - Buy
Trainline Plc (TRN:LON), 271 | Sage Group plc (SGE:LON), 1,236 | Rightmove plc (RMV:LON), 763 | Craneware plc (CRW:LON), 2,065 | GB Group PLC (GBG:LON), 274 | Auto Trader Group PLC (AUTO:LON), 800 | Eagle Eye Solutions Group PLC (EYE:LON), 202 | On The Beach Group PLC (OTB:LON), 262 | Alfa Financial Software Holdings Plc (ALFA:LON), 239 | BOKU, Inc. (BOKU:LON), 184 | ActiveOps plc (AOM:LON), 120 | Cerillion Plc (CER:LON), 1,930

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Trainline Plc : On the right track - Buy
Trainline Plc (TRN:LON), 271 | Sage Group plc (SGE:LON), 1,236 | Rightmove plc (RMV:LON), 763 | Craneware plc (CRW:LON), 2,065 | GB Group PLC (GBG:LON), 274 | Auto Trader Group PLC (AUTO:LON), 800 | Eagle Eye Solutions Group PLC (EYE:LON), 202 | On The Beach Group PLC (OTB:LON), 262 | Alfa Financial Software Holdings Plc (ALFA:LON), 239 | BOKU, Inc. (BOKU:LON), 184 | ActiveOps plc (AOM:LON), 120 | Cerillion Plc (CER:LON), 1,930
- Published:
02 May 2025 -
Author:
Alastair Reid -
Pages:
33 -
UK – the great debate: The UK population loves discussing trains almost as much as the weather - and debate around the long-term structure of the industry was behind the significant falls in early 2025. The underlying drivers of volume growth, price inflation & increasing digitisation make the UK a structural growth market for Trainline, even before consideration of market share gains. The advent of Great British Railways is much less of a risk than many imagine (if Uber can fail to gain traction, a government-owned competitor offering should hold no fears), and its funding requirements should ensure future take rate reviews are benign or even beneficial.
Expanding horizons: International Consumer is still just 18% of group ticket sales but represents the largest and most obvious opportunity for long-term growth and upside to forecasts. European markets are several times the size of the UK overall and are benefiting from politically mandated growth in competition – a notable step up in this is expected in Italy and France in 2027. If International generated the same net ticket sales and margins as the UK, group EBITDA would be >70% higher. We separately believe the value of the SaaS global tech stack that the company has built (reported as Trainline Solutions) is not properly reflected in the share price.
Take advantage of discount pricing: We forecast revenue growth of 7% pa over the forecast period, with 9% EBITDA and mid-teens EPS growth – we see upside risk from faster growth and bigger buybacks. The stock trades at c.8x CY25E EBITDA, well below the level of global travel tech platforms offering similar growth and despite scope for margin expansion that would move the multiple higher up the platform group range (International at breakeven would leave the multiple closer to 7.5x).