28th Jul 2014 08:28
LONDON (Alliance News) - Trinity Mirror PLC Monday expressed confidence that its full-year results will be "marginally ahead of expectations" and announced plans to reinstate dividends at the end of the year, as its profit was boosted by an exceptional gain in the half year to end-June.
Trinity Mirror expects to pay a final dividend of 3 pence per share, and said that "at this stage" it expects to pay annual dividends of 5 pence per share from 2015. The media company suspended the payment of dividends in 2008.
Shares in Trinity Mirror were trading up 8.7% at 194.28 pence Monday morning.
The company posted a pretax profit of GBP50.5 million, up from GBP30.3 million a year earlier, as a decline in revenue to GBP324.2 million from GBP332.0 million was offset by a GBP27.5 million gain from the disposal of MeteoGroup by PA Group in March. Trinity Mirror has a 21.5% interest in general news agency PA Group.
Trinity Mirror also made cost savings of GBP6 million during the first half, and expects to make savings of GBP10 million for the year.
Trinity Mirror said its performance in the first half was ahead of its expectations, as revenue fell at a lower pace than in 2013, and began to stabilise during the year. Revenue fell by 2.3% in the first half, with a 3.3% decline in January and February slowing to 2.4% in March and April and to 1.4% in May and June.
Revenue declines were driven by falls in the company's larger, traditional print segment, which strong growth in digital revenues failed to fully offset.
The company said it was continuing to co-operate with the police in regards to Operation Elvedon, investigating alleged illegal payments to public officials, and Operation Golding, investigating alleged phone hacking. It said it was aware of a number of civil claims over phone hacking, and said it has provided GBP4.0 million to cover the costs of these claims in the first half.
It noted that it "remains uncertain as to how these matters will progress, whether further allegations or claims will be made, and their financial impact."
Trinity Mirror continued to make progress in its strategy to revitalise its core print brands, and growing its existing brands into digital delivery channels.
Unique users and page views for its digital products accelerated in the first half, it said, particularly for Mirror.co.uk. This has led to strong growth in digital display advertising, which grew by 134% in June.
The company said that it has introduced a new editorial structure, Newsroom 3.1, to push a "digital first publishing process" across its newsrooms. This new format will be rolled out across its regional operations by the end of the year, it said.
Earlier in July the company said it was consolidating its national brands into a single newsroom, putting eight senior editorial roles into question.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
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