Last checked at 6 Jan 2011 07:00
06 January 2011
Centaur Media plc ("Centaur" or "the Group")
Half year trading update
Centaur Media plc, the business information and media group, today issues a trading update prior to its interim results announcement, which is scheduled for 24 February 2011.
The strong rate of revenue growth reported at the time of the AGM in November has been maintained during the remainder of the period. Group revenues for the first half of the financial year were around 15% ahead of the corresponding period of 2009.
This revenue growth reflected a continued improvement in most of our markets together with an increase in revenues derived from new products and services, which includes a number of new events. Year-on-year comparative Group advertising revenues increased by around 17%, with a notable increase in recruitment advertising, which was ahead by almost a third, reflecting strong growth in the legal and marketing communities. Excluding recruitment, the strongest growth rates have been achieved within web-based display advertising led by financial product advertising for which revenues are more than 30% ahead year-on-year.
Event revenues increased by around 13% year-on-year although the revenues in the comparative period include £0.4m relating to the Business Travel show in Dusseldorf with the exhibition now scheduled to run in March 2011. Excluding this timing change event revenues were ahead by 20% reflecting strong growth from the main established events in the period which include Employee Benefits Live and two regional Homebuilding shows as well as the newer National Home Improvement Show, which ran for the second time in October 2010 and the Business Travel Show Middle East which ran successfully in October 2010 after a years absence
Cash flow and balance sheet
The Group had net debt of £0.5m at 31 December 2010 reflecting seasonality and the earlier payment of the FY2010 final dividend of £1.5m. This position is adequately covered by the Group's £5.0m revolving credit facility and is expected to fully reverse in the six months ending 30 June 2011 when we forecast the Group returning to a net cash position.
Outlook
The Group continues to trade in line with the Board's expectations, despite the persistence of a degree of uncertainty in the macro-economic outlook. The Group is managing its cost base closely and further savings will accrue in the second half as a result of the re-organisation of the Group's publishing operations that were completed in the first half.
Enquiries:
Centaur Media plc Tel: 020 7970 4000Geoff Wilmot, CEO; Mike Lally, GFD
Kreab Gavin Anderson Tel: 020 7074 1800Robert Speed, Janine Brewis, Anthony Hughes
Notes
1. Centaur is one of the UK's leading business information and media groups serving a dozen specialist vertical markets with a portfolio of magazines, online products and events. The Group's aims is to be market leader in each of it's served markets and to achieve this through a focus on professional communities, quality content and continuous innovation. Major brands include Marketing Week, Money Marketing, The Lawyer, Creative Review, The Engineer, Homebuilding & Renovating and Perfect Information.
2. Centaur reports its results within 5 distinct segments, namely Legal and Financial, Marketing and Creative, Construction and Engineering, Perfect Information and General Business Services. The first 3 segments comprise principally the following vertical communities: Marketing Services, Creative Services, New Media, Retail Financial Products, Legal Services, Private homebuilding and home improvement and the Engineering community with a focus on innovation. Centaur also enjoys strong positions in a number of other specialist communities, namely HR, Recruitment, Supply Chain and Logistics and Business Travel.