14th Nov 2013 11:17
LONDON (Alliance News) - Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC hiked its full year dividend 6.8% Thursday after it saw rising pretax profits and revenues in the year ended September 30. However, it warned that the gains it saw in advertising revenues in the fourth quarter have not carried through to into the first quarter of the new year.
The financial magazine publisher and conference company announced a final dividend of 15.75 pence, up from 14.75 pence.
The company posted a pretax profit of GBP95.3 million, up 3.1% from GBP92.4 million in the previous year.
Revenue was GBP404.7 million, up from GBP394.1 million. The company said that it saw a 1% revenue decline in the first half, but that revenue growth increased to 6% in the second half as markets improved and three acquisitions completed in the middle of the year began to contribute.
Subscription revenues grew by 3% to GBP206.3 million despite a flat first half, contributing just over half of total revenues. The company said that advertising revenues returned to growth after two years of decline, driven by new products and an improvement in advertising markets.
Revenues from event sponsorship grew to GBP51.4 million from GBP47.6 million, boosted by the acquisitions of Insider Publishing Limited and the Centre for Investor Education.
Trading for the first quarter of 2014 has been in line with expectations, Euromoney said, as its strategy to increase the proportion of its revenues coming from subscriptions and events remained on track. However, the improvement in advertising revenues it saw in the fourth quarter has not continued into the first quarter of the new year, Euromoney said.
"While sentiment in financial markets remains reasonably positive, there is usually a lag between their improved profitability and the appetite for financial institutions to increase their spending on marketing, training and information buying," Chairman Richard Ensor said in a statement. "Most customer budgets are calendar year driven so it is too early to determine whether this lag will translate into increased spend in 2014. "
The company plans to continue investing to focus its business more on digital products, and said it will make further acquisitions to drive growth.
Shares in Euromoney were trading up 0.4% at 1,124.00 pence Thursday morning.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
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