Travel agency Flight Centre expects to post a record before-tax annual profit due to strong returns from its Australian and UK businesses.

The company says its unaudited trading results for the 2012/13 financial year point to an underlying pre-tax profit of between $338 million and $342 million.

That is at the top of the $325 million to $340 million pre-tax profit range the company forecast in upgraded guidance in May.

And it is up 17 per cent from the pre-tax profit of $290 million recorded in 2011/12.

The company’s share price has doubled since the start of last financial year, surging from $18.99 to $40.14, taking its market value past $4 billion.

Its shares gained 84 cents, or 2.1 per cent, on Wednesday on a weak day for the share market.

Managing director Graham Turner said strong growth in its leisure travel business in Australia and the UK had helped drive the result.

“Australia and the UK, Flight Centre’s major profit drivers, easily surpassed their previous profit records,” Mr Turner said in a statement.

The company also recorded profit growth in the US, where it owns the largest corporate travel business in the country and is continuing to expand.

Mr Turner said Flight Centre expects to have recorded profits from each of the 10 countries in which it operates, including New Zealand, South Africa, Singapore, India, Dubai, Canada and China.

“New Zealand, South Africa and India generated solid year-on-year growth, while Canada and Dubai delivered healthy sales growth and were profitable, but bottom-line results were down compared to last year,” he said.

Mr Turner said the company had more than $400 million in general funds as of June 30, although the size of the pool will decrease once dividend and tax payments are made.

The company will report final results for 2012/13 in August.