28th Mar 2014 13:15
LONDON (Alliance News) - Catalyst Media Group PLC swung into a pretax loss for the half year ended December 31, 2013, after it wrote down costs relating to its share in betting office television and data services provider Satellite Information Services Ltd,
Catalyst makes and develops online games. It is a 20.54% shareholder in SIS, which is its main asset. Its results include its share in the profits of SIS as an equity accounted associate.
The company posted a pretax loss of GBP7,770, swung from a pretax profit of GBP2.0 million in the previous year, as it was hit by an GBP2.2 million impairment charge relating to its share in SIS as revenues remained flat at GB12,500.
SIS had a pretax profit of GBP10.7 million in the half year ended September 30, 2013, up from GBP9.9 million as revenues rose to GBP138.6 million from GBP131.0 million. Despite this rise in profitability,
Catalyst opted to maintain its investment value in the company at the same level, after SIS's Outside Broadcast Division's contract with the BBC was terminated. This resulted in the GBP2.2 million impairment, which is equal to its share of SIS's profit.
Whilst SIS continues to be profitable, the media rights for horse racing and dog track racing that it holds will expire between 2014 and 2018, and the betting industry continues to undergo changes. This led to SIS opting not to pay an interim dividend, and express uncertainty about when they might resume.
As a direct result of this, Catalyst also opted not to pay an interim dividend.
Shares in Catalyst were trading down 4.2% at 75.20 pence Friday afternoon.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
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