26th Mar 2015 08:52
LONDON (Alliance News) - Daily Mail and General Trust PLC Thursday said its revenue and profit outlook for the current financial year is unchanged, after it reported a slight rise in revenue for the first five months as growth in its information and events businesses offset a decline in its newspaper businesses, although it signalled that advertising is improving, particularly online.
The company said revenue was up 1% in the five months to the end of February, as 6% growth in the business-to-business unit was offset a similar fall in its media business that was mostly caused by a drop in advertising revenue. Advertising revenue dropped 13%, while circulation revenue fell 4% even though the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday continued to gain market share.
On an underlying basis, which strips out exchange rate movements, disposals, closures, acquisitions and non-annual events, business-to-business revenue rose 2% offsetting a 2% decline in the media business. Adjusted for the timing of Euromoney's events, underlying business-to-business revenue was up 4%, meaning underlying group revenue was also up 1%, in line with the reported figure.
Underlying media revenue was down 2%, with advertising revenue rising 1%. A 6% decline in its newspapers was more than offset by a 20% increase on the newspaper companion websites, mainly MailOnline, and 29% growth in other digital advertising, mainly Wowcher.
In the four weeks since February 22 underlying advertising revenues in dmg media are up 5% on the previous year, the company said.
Wowcher's total revenue was up 34%, with its subscriber database at the end of February standing at 6.5 million, up 40% on the year.
Daily Mail, which holds a 67% stake in FTSE-250 listed Euromoney, said that although the management solutions business was boosted by the stronger US dollar, at constant currency revenues were down 2% due to the delay of its RMS(one) software-as-a-service platform. The platform was originally scheduled for a release last April, but the company now expects the product to be delivered during 2015.
The company has continued to acquire businesses into its business-to-business portfolio, adding Starfish Retention Solutions Inc, Energy Fundamentals, and a stake in Petrotanz Inc. In dmg media it acquired Elite Daily, a US news and entertainment website.
Euromoney also released a trading update Thursday, said it expects to post a fall in pretax profit before amortisation and other exceptional items related to acquisitions in its first half to end-March, as challenging market conditions have not improved since its first quarter and it experienced a lower operating margin.
Shares in Daily Mail and General Trust are trading down 1.2% at 864.50 pence, and Euromoney is down 3.5% at 1,090.00 pence.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
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