24 Sep 2008 07:00
Vitesse Media Plc
Interim Results
The Board of Vitesse Media Plc (AIM: VIS), the publishing, events and multimedia company, today announces its interim results for the six month ending 31 July 2008.
Commenting on the results, Vitesse Media's Chairman, Sara Williams, said:
Highlights include:
Revenues including acquisitions up by 13.6% (2008: £2.36 million; 2007: £2.07 million). Loss for the six months (before expensing share options) was £249,000 (2007: profit of £5,000)
Information Age, acquired in November 2007, is now fully integrated
Cost savings of £630,000 per year identified and introduced and will be coming through in the second half-year
Activities refocused on higher-yield products, such as larger events
Business now restructured into two divisions, Business and Investment, which is giving a greater focus to the sales teams
Business XL has bucked the trend of disappointing print advertising figures for the first six months with a 21% upturn in revenues for the magazine. In addition, its associated website, GrowthBusiness.co.uk produced revenues up by 11.2%, and revenues for its larger events rose by nearly 50% due to the launch of the New Energy Awards
Both online and event revenues for the continuing business showed increases over the 2007 figures, online up by 3.5% and event revenues (excluding discontinued seminars) up by over 11%
Information Age and What Investment have both increased their market share of display ads in 2008 compared with 2007. Information Age has strengthened its market-leading position and What Investment has become the market leader for the first time
Cash collections have continued strongly throughout the summer, with the average daily receipt for August being our highest ever
The second-half figures should show a marked improvement over the first half.
Outlook for 2008/09
Information Age has struggled to reach its budget revenue figures since we acquired it; however, under our restructuring, the title is now ahead of budget revenue for September. Under our ownership, for the period from 1 February 2008 to 31 August 2008, there has been an improvement of over £140,000 at the bottom line, compared with the same period last year under its original owners. All this augurs well for the future for this title.
What Investment has endured a very difficult first six months of the financial year, but the team reports an improvement in sentiment for the autumn, and is ahead of budget for display advertising in both August and September; however, visibility remains poor. Subscriptions for the title have increased since the start of the year and that trend is expected to continue. The magazine will be relaunched for the November issue, with a brand new design, and we are busy planning to maximise the impact of this.
Business XL continues to go from strength to strength. It has steadily met its budget for print advertising, and its associated website has also done well. The launch and huge success of the Rosenblatt New Energy Awards in February has encouraged us to develop a new event, the Media Magnate Awards, and we are delighted to have secured Canaccord Adams, a leading AIM broker and adviser, as headline sponsor.
Of our other brands, Growth Company Investor will publish more research documents in the autumn and the Quoted Company Awards is set fair to improve upon last year's figure. Against that, list sales continue to disappoint and subscriptions are proving more difficult to acquire.
SmallBusiness.co.uk was relaunched in June, generating much interest, but that has not yet fully translated into revenues; we are looking for that to happen in the autumn.
M&A Magazine was relaunched in July and the second M&A Awards was held in February. We continue to develop the brand, although at this stage the economic background is making it difficult for us to progress in moving from a breakeven contribution in this financial year to date to the sort of profit level that we are targeting.
We have worked hard trimming costs and analysing more efficient methods of operation across the group. The full fruits of these should be felt in the second half of this financial year and the first half of the next financial year.
Outlook for 2009/10 and beyond
We have built a strong cross-platform media business comprising six good brands with healthy franchises. Once the economy has recovered, we expect there to be significant improvements in profitability. In the meantime, we continue to invest in the brands with a view to improving the quality of the earnings stream and thus increasing the value of our intangible assets. There is a real opportunity for us to build a highly profitable B2B media business.
- Ends -
Enquiries:
| Vitesse Media Plc | |
| Sara Williams / Kym Kingwill | www.vitessemedia.co.uk |
| KBC Peel Hunt | Tel: 020 7418 8900 |
| Matthew Tyler / Daniel Harris | |
| Consolidated Income Statement | |||||
| For the six months ended | 31 July 2008 | ||||
| 6 months ended | 6 months ended | Period ended | |||
| 31 July 2008 | 31 July 2007 | 31 January 2008 | |||
| (unaudited) | (unaudited) | (audited) | |||
| £'000 | £'000 | £'000 | |||
| Revenue | - continuing | 2,657 | 1,813 | 3,630 | |
| - acquired | 0 | 544 | 1,310 | ||
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|
|
| |||
| 2,657 | 2,357 | 4,940 | |||
| Cost of sales | 1,049 | 802 | 1,661 | ||
|
|
|
| |||
| Gross profit | 1,608 | 1,555 | 3,279 | ||
| Administration expenses | 1,845 | 1,546 | 3,365 | ||
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|
|
| |||
| Operating (Loss) /profit | (237) | 9 | (86) | ||
| Finance costs | (35) | (7) | (12) | ||
|
|
|
| |||
| (Loss)/profit before taxation | (272) | 2 | (98) | ||
| Taxation | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
|
|
|
| |||
| (Loss)/profit for the period | (272) | 2 | (98) | ||
|
|
|
| |||
| (Loss)/earnings per share (pence) | |||||
| Basic | (1.11)p | 0.001p | (0.45)p | ||
| Diluted | (1.11)p | 0.001p | (0.45)p | ||
| Consolidated Balance Sheet | ||||
| as at 31 July 2008 | ||||
| 6 months ended | 6 months ended | Period ended | ||
| 31 July 2008 | 31 July 2007 | 31 January 2008 | ||
| (unaudited) | (unaudited) | (audited) | ||
| £'000 | £'000 | £'000 | ||
| ASSETS | ||||
| Non-current assets | ||||
| Tangible fixed assets | 185 | 257 | 209 | |
| Other intangible assets | 2,675 | 1,469 | 2,703 | |
| Trade and other receivables | 21 | 21 | 21 | |
| 2,881 | 1,747 | 2,933 | ||
| Current assets | ||||
| Inventories | 12 | 0 | 17 | |
| Trade and other receivables | 1,231 | 1,277 | 1,248 | |
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|
|
| ||
| 1,243 | 1,277 | 1,265 | ||
| Total assets | 4,124 | 3,024 | 4,198 | |
| EQUITY AND LIABILITIES | ||||
| Equity | ||||
| Share capital | 2,451 | 2,091 | 2,451 | |
| Share premium | 2,369 | 1,843 | 2,369 | |
| Other reserves | 164 | 139 | 141 | |
| Retained earnings | (3,466) | (3,095) | (3,194) | |
| 1,518 | 978 | 1,767 | ||
| Non-current liabilities | ||||
| Bank loans | 0 | 21 | 153 | |
| Obligations under finance lease | 13 | 37 | 23 | |
| Deferred tax | 147 | 0 | 147 | |
| 160 | 58 | 323 | ||
| Current liabilities | ||||
| Trade and other payables | 2,075 | 1,966 | 1,896 | |
| Bank overdrafts and loans | 371 | 22 | 212 | |
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|
|
| ||
| 2,446 | 1,988 | 2,108 | ||
| Total equity and liabilities | 4,124 | 3,024 | 4,198 | |
| Consolidated cash flow statement | ||||
| For the six months ended 31 July 2008 |
| |||
| 6 months ended | 6 months ended | Period ended | ||
| 31 July 2008 | 31 July 2007 | 31 January 2008 | ||
| (unaudited) | (unaudited) | (audited) | ||
| £'000 | £'000 | £'000 | ||
| Cash inflow from operating activities | ||||
| (Loss)/profit before taxation | (272) | 2 | (98) | |
| Adjustments | ||||
| Interest paid | 37 | 8 | 17 | |
| Interest received | (3) | (1) | (5) | |
| Amortisation | 28 | 0 | 2 | |
| Depreciation | 40 | 42 | 102 | |
| (170) | 51 | 18 | ||
| Share option costs | 22 | 3 | 6 | |
| Decrease in inventories | 5 | 0 | 6 | |
| Decrease/(increase) in receivables | 16 | (656) | (357) | |
| Increase in payables | 187 | 490 | 40 | |
| Cash generated from/(used in) operations | 60 | (112) | (287) | |
| Interest paid | (37) | (8) | (17) | |
| Net cash from/(used in) operating activities | 23 | (120) | (304) | |
| Investing activities | ||||
| Interest received | 3 | 1 | 5 | |
| Acquisition of subsidiaries | 0 | (2) | (678) | |
| Purchase of property, plant and equipment | (7) | (43) | (133) | |
| Net cash (used in) investing activities | (4) | (44) | (806) | |
| Financing activities | ||||
| Proceeds from issue of share capital | 0 | 0 | 751 | |
| Share issue costs | 0 | 0 | (81) | |
| Repayments of borrowings | (233) | (10) | (44) | |
| Repayments of obligations under finance leases | (27) | (29) | (45) | |
| New bank loans raised | 0 | 0 | 250 | |
| Net cash (used in)/from financing activities | (260) | (39) | 831 | |
| Net decrease in cash and cash equivalents | (241) | (203) | (279) | |
| Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of period | (98) | 181 | 181 | |
| Cash and cash equivalents at end of period | (339) | (22) | (98) | |
| Consolidated Statement of changes in equity | ||||||||
| For the six months ended 31 July 2008 | ||||||||
| Share capital | Share premium Account | Retained earnings | Other reserves | Share options reserve | Total | |||
| £ '000 | £ '000 | £ '000 | £ '000 | £ '000 | £ '000 | |||
| 6 months ended 31 July 2007 | ||||||||
| As at 7 February 2007 | 2,091 | 1,845 | (3,097) | 104 | 32 | 975 | ||
| Profit for the period | 2 | 2 | ||||||
| Shares issue costs | (2) | (2) | ||||||
| Share based payment charge | 3 | 3 | ||||||
| As at 31 July 2007 | 2,091 | 1,843 | (3,095) | 104 | 35 | 978 | ||
| 12 months ended 31 January 2008 | ||||||||
| As at 7 February 2007 | 2,091 | 1,845 | (3,097) | 104 | 32 | 975 | ||
| Loss for the period | (98) | (98) | ||||||
| Shares issued | 360 | 605 | 965 | |||||
| Shares issue costs | (81) | (81) | ||||||
| Share based payment charge | 5 | 5 | ||||||
| As at 31 January 2008 | 2,451 | 2,369 | (3,195) | 104 | 37 | 1,766 | ||
| 6 months ended 31 July 2008 | ||||||||
| As at 1 February 2008 | 2,451 | 2,369 | (3,195) | 104 | 37 | 1,766 | ||
| Loss for the period | (272) | (272) | ||||||
| Shares issued | 0 | |||||||
| Share based payment charge | 23 | 23 | ||||||
| As at 31 July 2008 |
| 2,451 | 2,369 | (3,467) | 104 | 60 | 1,517 | |
Notes to the Interim Results
1. Basis of preparation
These interim condensed consolidated financial statements are for the six months ended 31 July 2008. They have been prepared in accordance with IAS 34 "Interim Financial Reporting". This is now the Group's second year of reporting under IFRS and the comparative information is therefore taken from financial information previously reported under IFRS.
These financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention.
These consolidated interim financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the accounting policies used in the period ended 31 January 2008, which are based on the recognition and measurement principles of IFRS in issue as adopted by the European Union (EU).
Nature of operations and general information
Vitesse Media Plc and subsidiaries' ("the Group's") principal activities include the provision of online and print publications and events, specialising in growing businesses.
Vitesse Media Plc is the Group's ultimate parent company. It is incorporated and domiciled in Great Britain. The address of Vitesse Media Plc's registered office is 20 Black Friars Lane, London EC4V 6HD. Vitesse Media Plc's shares are listed on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange.
Vitesse Media Plc's consolidated interim financial statements are presented in Pounds Sterling (£), which is also the functional currency of the parent company.
These condensed consolidated interim financial statements have been approved for issue by the Board of Directors on 24 September 2008.
The financial information set out in this interim report does not constitute statutory accounts as defined in Section 240 of the Companies Act 1985. The Group's statutory financial statements for the period ended 31 January 2008, prepared under IFRS, have been filed with the Registrar of Companies. The auditor's report on those financial statements was unqualified and did not contain a statement under Section 237(2) of the Companies Act 1985. 2. Segmental information
The group operates in one geographical location, being the UK. Accordingly the primary segmental disclosure is based on activity.
| Online | Print publishing | Events | Total | |
| £'000 | £'000 | £'000 | £'000 | |
| 6 months ended 31 July 2008 | ||||
| Segmental revenue - continuing | 670 | 1250 | 737 | 2,657 |
| Segmental revenue - acquired | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total segmental revenue | 670 | 1,250 | 737 | 2,657 |
| Segmental result | 557 | 695 | 356 | 1,608 |
| 6 months ended 31 July 2007 | ||||
| Segmental revenue - continuing | 458 | 732 | 623 | 1,813 |
| Segmental revenue - acquired | 54 | 490 | 0 | 544 |
| Total segmental revenue | 512 | 1,222 | 623 | 2,357 |
| Segmental result | 480 | 753 | 322 | 1,555 |
| 12 months ended 31 January 2008 | ||||
| Segmental revenue - continuing | 918 | 1,460 | 1,252 | 3,630 |
| Segmental revenue - acquired | 182 | 1,023 | 105 | 1,310 |
| Total segmental revenue | 1,100 | 2,483 | 1,357 | 4,940 |
| Segmental result | 1,064 | 1,577 | 638 | 3,279 |
3. Earnings/(loss) per share
The calculation of loss per share is based on the following losses and numbers of shares. Diluted earnings per share is calculated by adjusting the weighted average number of ordinary shares outstanding to assume conversion of all dilutive potential ordinary shares. The Company has one category of dilutive potential ordinary shares: share options. The Company has made a loss and the potential share options are therefore anti-dilutive.
| 6 months to 31 July 2008 (Unaudited) | 6 months to 31 July 2007 (Unaudited) | Period end 31 January 2008 (audited) | |
| £'000 | £'000 | £'000 | |
| (Loss)/earnings for the period | (272) | 2 | (98) |
| No. | No. | No. | |
| Weighted average number of shares | 24,505,577 | 20,908,914 | 21,812,906 |
4. Dividends
No dividend is proposed for the six months ended 31 July 2008.
5. Copies of Interim Results
Copies of the Interim Results will be available from www.vitessemedia.co.uk and from the Company's registered office, 20 Black Friars Lane, London EC4V 6HD.