25th Nov 2015 07:49
LONDON (Alliance News) - Daily Mail & General Trust PLC on Wednesday reported full-year earnings in line with expectations but warned that its results for the coming year will be hurt by the sale of its stake in newspaper group Local World Holdings Ltd, as well as challenging conditions facing UK print advertising and subsidiary Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC.
For the year to end-September DMGT reported a pretax profit of GBP216.1 million, down from GBP267.0 million a year before, as a rise in revenue to GBP1.84 billion from GBP1.81 billion was offset by significant profits on disposals in the previous year that were not repeated.
On an adjusted basis, stripping out exceptional costs including impairments, pretax profit fell 4% to GBP281 million from GBP291 million, as revenue fell 1% to GBP1.85 billion from GBP1.86 billion. Adjusted earnings per share was 59.7 pence, up from 55.7 pence a year before. DMGT attributed the fall in pretax profit to increased costs associated with its RMS(one) business, and declining profits at Euromoney, in which DMGT holds a 67% stake.
This comes in line with DMGT's previous guidance that its adjusted results will meet market expectations. In September it gave market consensus expectations for a full year adjusted pretax profit of GBP274 million and adjusted earnings per share of 57.1 pence.
DMGT said Wednesday it has entered its new financial year with its businesses performing in line with its expectations, and whilst some of its business-to-business arms are facing "challenging market conditions" it still expects to deliver underlying revenue growth for the sector as a whole.
In its consumer facing businesses, revenue progress will be "largely dependant on the print advertising environment", balanced against further growth in digital areas and a continued focus on cost efficiencies which it said "should provide margin stability" for its dmg media segment.
DMGT proposed a final dividend of 14.9 pence, taking its total dividend for the year to 21.4 pence, up from 20.4 pence a year before.
"Continuing investment to drive innovation, coupled with active portfolio management, ensures that DMGT is well placed to create long-term shareholder value. Significant organic investments are currently being made in MailOnline, RMS(one), Xceligent and across the wider dmg information portfolio," said Chief Executive Martin Morgan in a statement.
"The challenging market conditions in the UK print advertising market and those facing Euromoney in the investment banking and commodities sectors are likely to have an adverse impact on full year 2016 results, as will the disposal of DMGT's stake in Local World, which completed in November 2015. The board remains confident, however, that thegroup has a portfolio of innovative and exciting businesses and is well positioned to deliver good long-term growth," Morgan added.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
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