21st Nov 2013 10:50
LONDON (Alliance News) - Shares in Porta Communications rose 7.1% after it said that trading in October had been "extremely buoyant", and early indicators for the rest of the year were positive in a trading update Thursday.
The company said that that expected trading levels in the fourth quarter should be sufficient to offset losses incurred in the third quarter, leaving its second half with a positive earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation result.
Porta is looking to generate positive EBITDA in the last quarter of the year after it saw start-up costs and an unexpected large bad debt provision at its TTMV advertising agency.
The communications and marketing business said that it had benefited from new business wins in the period. Its public relations division Newgate Communications finished the year on strong note, as the Newgate Threadneedle financial PR business was boosted by a number of initial public offerings and client wins.
Its Hong Kong and Singapore offices should make a positive contribution in 2014, Porta said, and its Australian business has traded ahead of expectations.
Porta's two advertising agencies TTMV and 21:12 performed below internal budgets, Porta said, as TTMV saw a slowdown in advertising spend in August, September and October. 21:12, launched in January, broke even in October, and Porta is confident it will perform better in 2014.
Shares in Porta were trading up 7.1% at 15.00 pence Thursday morning.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
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