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LONDON (Alliance News) - XLMedia PLC said Thursday its trading in the second half of 2018 continued to strengthen but still expects its full year revenue to be lower than last year.
The digital marketing company said it focused on higher margin business in the second half, leading the company to believe its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation will be in line with current market expectations. the company's adjusted Ebitda came in at USD47.1 million.
The company said its revenue for 2018 will be about USD118 million, compared to USD137.6 million reported in 2017.
XLMedia said it has a "material" cash balance and its operations continue to generate strong cash flows.
The company said it will continue to focus on growing its higher margin publishing division, which includes include - and the newly re-regulated US gambling market - and Personal Finance.
Shares in XLMedia were down 2.7% Thursday at 72.40 pence each.
Separately, XLMedia announced it bought back 108,053 shares at 74.17 pence for GBP80,143 as part of its buyback programme.
In December, the company announced it would buy back shares worth up to USD10 million. The shares will be purchased in open market transactions and the timing will depend on market conditions, share price and trading volume.
XLMedia will buy a maximum of 22.0 million shares, which will be held in treasury. As of Thursday, XLMedia held 1.8 million shares in treasury as part of the buyback programme.
At the time, Non-Executive Chair Chris Bell said: "As part of our broader strategy to deliver shareholder value, coupled with recent weakness in our share price, the board has concluded that it is an opportune moment to undertake a share buy-back initiative, alongside maintaining our current dividend policy."
