29 Aug 2008 11:12
Vitesse Media plc
("the Company")
AGM Announcement
At the Annual General Meeting of publishing, events and multimedia company Vitesse Media Plc (AIM: VIS), the Company is pleased to announce that all resolutions were passed.
At the meeting, the Company's Chairman, Sara Williams, made the following statement:
Although trading in July and August has remained disappointing, principally for print advertising in What Investment and Information Age, I am happy to tell you that there are, at this stage, some more positive signs for the autumn:
The September issues for both Information Age and What Investment are ahead of budget for the first time for many months
The business was restructured along product lines, dividing into the Business Division and the Investment Division, and this appears to have given greater focus to the sales team
The decision to drop smaller, more marginal events and focus on bigger events also appears to have worked well and the majority of events in the second half of the year are currently on or ahead of plan in terms of sponsorship and table sales. We have also secured a headline sponsorship for the launch of a new awards event in November, the Media Magnate Awards; the sponsor is Canaccord Adams, a leading nominated adviser and broker on Aim.
The lower cost structure developed during the first half of the year is now fully in place
Despite the difficult trading conditions, we have continued to invest in all our brands. During the last twelve months the following have all been redesigned and relaunched: Business XL magazine, M& A magazine, Growth Company Investor and SmallBusiness.co.uk. During the rest of 2008, we will also be relaunching What Investment (November issue), GrowthBusiness.co.uk (September) and Information-Age.com (October). Our past experience with redesigning our products is that it has tended to lead to improvements in the revenue stream.
Nevertheless, in view of the current forecasts for the economy, we remain cautious and we continue to focus on cost control, product mix and the eking out of marginal gains.
I am also announcing the resignation of Chris Broadbent, our Sales Director, from the board of Vitesse Media plc as of 1 October 2008. However, we are delighted that Chris remains working with us on Business Development on a part-time basis and will continue to help us launch new products as well as grow existing ones. Chris has been an employee of Vitesse for seven years and was appointed to the board on 24 January 2005. He has been instrumental in building the revenues of all titles, including Growth Company Investor and Business XL. We thank him for his contribution to the board and the development of the Vitesse strategy.
Enquiries:
Vitesse:
Sara Williams www.vitessemedia.co.uk
Kym Kingwill 020 7250 7010
KBC Peel Hunt Ltd - Nominated Adivser and Broker
Daniel Harris or Capel Irwin 020 7418 8900