21st May 2015 07:25
LONDON (Alliance News) - Daily Mail and General Trust PLC Thursday reiterated its guidance for the whole of the financial year as exceptional gains helped boost pretax profit in the first half, and said it expects to beat current market earnings per share expectations due to a reduced tax charge.
According to consensus forecasts from eight brokers provided by Morningstar, Daily Mail and General Trust is expected to post earnings per share of 53.77 pence for its full year.
For the half year to end-March, the media company posted a pretax profit of GBP126.7 million, up from GBP81.6 million a year before, as revenue rose to GBP919.1 million from GBP893.6 million and it booked GBP78.2 million of exceptional gains.
The gains included a GBP45.2 million gain from the sale of Capital Data Ltd from Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC, which it holds a 67% stake in.
Stripping out exceptional items, gains and losses, impairments, amortisation, pension finance changes and premiums on bond redemptions, pretax profit fell to GBP146 million from GBP151 million, on revenue of GBP922 million compared with GBP931 million.
The company said its first half was hit by investment in its RMS(one) software-as-a-service platform and the absence of its Gastech event in its events segment, although this was offset somewhat by the stronger dollar.
It expects its performance in the second half to be improved, particularly in its business-to-business arm, and reiterated its outlook for the full year. The stronger dollar is also expected to boost the company's events business, with revenue now expected to decline by around 5% for the full year, compared with the 10% decline it had previously guided.
The company proposed an interim dividend of 6.5 pence, increased from 6.2 pence a year before.
Shares in Daily Mail and General Trust are trading up 0.5% at 924.50 pence Thursday morning.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
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