(Alliance News) - M&C Saatchi PLC on Monday said its cash position as of the end of December was significantly better than expected.
The advertising firm said this was due to the implementation of improved cash collection processes. Net cash at December 31 will be "at least" GBP15 million.
M&C Saatchi also confirmed underlying pretax profit for 2019 will be in line with the expectations set out in a trading statement early in December.
At the time, the company warned on annual profit for the second time in the last quarter of 2019, saying trading had been weaker than expected. M&C Saatchi had said underlying pretax profit was to fall 22% to 27% in 2019 in the last warning, with the broad range showing the importance of December trading.
It had previously guided for an underlying pretax profit fall of as much as 10%. In 2018, M&C Saatchi posted a pretax profit of GBP17.6 million, with no underlying figure given.
The company has also been grappling with accounting issues, having in August warned of some errors which led to an internal review. In December, it warned of a GBP11.6 million charge after the review.
Later on in December, three M&C Saatchi non-executive directors left the company, as did Executive Director Maurice Saatchi. The firm said Monday new non-executive board appointments will be made soon.
Shares were 3.3% higher on Monday morning in London at a price of 124.99 pence each, but have declined by 63% since August.
By George Collard; georgecollard@alliancenews.com
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M&C Saatchi (SAA)
