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LONDON (Alliance News) - Newspaper publisher Reach PLC hiked its annual dividend Monday as underlying profit rose despite like-for-like sales falling and it saw a "stronger" financial performance at the end of 2018.
Reach - known as Trinity Mirror PLC until May last year - sank to a reported pretax loss of GBP119.9 million in the 52 weeks to December 30 from a profit of GBP81.9 million the year prior. This was despite revenue rising 16% to GBP723.9 million from GBP623.2 million the year before.
Profit performance was hurt by GBP253.2 million in one-off costs during 2018. Of this, GBP200.0 million was associated with goodwill impairments with the remainder due to legal charges, restructuring costs and pension charges.
Adjusted pretax profit - excluding one-off costs - widened 16% to GBP141.9 million from GBP122.5 million the year before.
Revenue performance was boosted by its acquisition of Daily Express and Daily Star publisher Northern & Shell for GBP126.7 million in February 2018. Excluding the impact of the acquisition, like-for-like revenue fell 6.6%. Within this, print publishing revenue fell 8.7%, while digital revenue rose 5.3%.
In January and February of the new year, Reach said revenue is expected to fall by 7% on a like-for-like basis. Assuming no significant hit to the business from Brexit in 2019, Reach said it is confident of progress to support profit and cash flow.
Reach proposed a 3.77 pence, up 6.2% from 3.55p the year prior. For the full year, the dividend rose 5.9% to 6.14p from 5.80p the year before.
"I am pleased with the performance we have delivered in 2018 and encouraged by the stronger finish to the year," Reach Chief Executive Officer Simon Fox said. "We have begun 2019 in a strong financial position with good momentum on the integration of Express & Star and with clear plans for digital growth."
Net debt fell to GBP40.8 million, from GBP81.0 million six months earlier.
Shares in Reach were 4.2% higher at 59.99 pence on Monday.
