18th May 2015 08:41
LONDON (Alliance News) - Media group and digital publisher Future PLC Monday posted a significantly narrowed loss for its first half due to impairment charges not recurring, and announced that Chief Financial Officer Richard Haley plans to step down.
Haley will remain in his role to ensure an orderly handover, Future said.
For the half year to end-March Future posted a pretax loss of GBP1.3 million, narrowed significantly from a pretax loss of GBP24.3 million a year before, despite seeing revenue fall to GBP30.8 million from GBP35.8 million, due to heavy impairment charges on its declining print assets in the previous year not recurring.
The company said its so-called 'transformation programme' that it began last year is now nearing completion. The company has been working on refocusing on digital and other diversified revenue streams, whilst managing a steady decline in traditional print revenue and exiting loss-making activities.
Whilst digital and diversified revenue rose to GBP15.3 million from GBP15.0 million, this was more than offset by a decline in print revenue to GBP15.5 million from GBP20.8 million. Diversified revenue streams include advertising, events, licensing and e-commerce.
Future said that the seasonality of its business means that its third quarter is usually the quietest, whilst its fourth is typically its strongest.
"Momentum is clearly building, with half our revenues now coming from digital and diversified activities. This is an important milestone for the business. We expect the trends seen in the first half to continue into the second half of the current financial year," said Chief Executive Zillah Byng-Maddick in a statement.
Shares in Future are trading up 2.7% at 10.79 pence Monday morning.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
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