8th Jul 2014 08:16
LONDON (Alliance News) - Information, events and publishing company Dods (Group) PLC saw its shares rise Tuesday after it reported a sharply narrowed loss, higher revenue, and said it would continue transforming the publishing and events operations to push up profitability.
The company, which provides political data, publishes magazines like Civil Service World and organizes political policy conferences among other things, announced a restructuring programme last autumn. Like peers in the media sector, it wants to push more online and invest in technology, while cutting costs in traditional media streams.
That strategy seems to be paying off, as it reported a net loss of GBP1.3 million for the year to March 31, compared with a loss of GBP10.6 million in the 15 months to March 31, 2013. Revenue rose to GBP19.8 million, from GBP18.8 million for the 15 month period, and it cut administrative expenses by more than half to GBP7.3 million.
Its like-for-like sales rose by 17%, or GBP2.5 million, while its gross profit margin increased to 29%, from 25%.
However, net cash fell to GBP5.3 million on March 31, from GBP7.0 million a year earlier, as it generated GBP0.4 million of cash from operations during the year but spent GBP1.6 million on new hardware and software. It said restructuring costs during the year were GBP0.5 million.
Dods said the current financial year has started "satisfactorily" and is "showing progress" on last year, but that the year must be viewed as transitional for the business,
"The investment in technology is a core element of this as is the need to evolve the business operations to ensure we use this investment to deliver our products and services more efficiently," it said.
Dods shares were up 17.9% at 3.10 pence Tuesday morning, the second-biggest increase on the AIM All-Share index.
By Steve McGrath; [email protected]; @stevemcgrath1
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