(Alliance News) - Ascential PLC on Thursday said it intends to return GBP850 million to its shareholders as it reported a dive in annual profit amid an optimistic outlook.
The London-based events, subscription business and advisory services-focused company said pretax profit dived 57% to GBP10.6 million in 2023 from GBP24.8 million in 2022.
Revenue climbed 7.9% to GBP206.4 million from GBP191.2 million.
Finance costs however trebled to GBP26.6 million from GBP8.2 million, while cost of sales increased 14% to GBP74.2 million from GBP65.3 million.
Sales, marketing and administrative expenses increased 2.8% to GBP101.5 million from GBP98.7 million.
Net debt as at December 31 increased 47% to GBP318.1 million from GBP216.7 million a year prior.
The company said it intends to return GBP850 million of value to its shareholders via a GBP450 million special dividend and a GBP400 million purchase of shares. Ascential will ask for shareholder approval in May.
Chief Executive Philip Thomas said: "Looking ahead to 2024, we continue to see positive customer engagement, with booking levels for our events tracking in line with prior year indicators overall...This continuing momentum, following on from our strong post pandemic bounce-back, supports our confidence in our medium-term growth targets and ambitions."
Ascential shares rose 1.9% to 306.60 pence each on Thursday morning in London.
By Tom Budszus, Alliance News slot editor
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Ascential (ASCL)