DMGT.L Regulatory News (DMGT)

21 July 2016

Daily Mail and General Trust plc ('DMGT')

Third Quarter Trading Update

This trading update covers the third quarter of DMGT's financial year, the three month period to 30 June 2016. It describes the Group's financial position and performance during the period, updated to the latest practicable date.

Outlook in line with current market expectations~

· Underlying# revenue growth for the third quarter of 1% on last year; reported revenues benefiting from stronger US dollar

· Underlying# growth of 3% from our B2B businesses with an improving trend at Euromoney

· dmg media underlying# revenue decline of 2% with weak UK print advertising market, partly offset by digital advertising growth and robust circulation revenue

· Continued active portfolio management with acquisitions for dmg information

· Net debt remained at £719 million, in line with our expectations

· Appointment of Paul Zwillenberg as Chief Executive on 1 June 2016

· Outlook for the Full Year in line with current market expectations~

Business to Business (B2B)

· Risk Management Solutions (RMS): revenues grew by an underlying# 5% in the quarter, despite the continuing adverse impact of some client consolidation. Reported revenues benefited from the stronger US dollar. The RMS(one) suite of products and solutions remains on track to be released in stages to RMS's client base. The first application to run on RMS(one), Exposure Manager, is expected to be released in the coming weeks, with amortisation of the RMS(one) asset commencing in August 2016.

· dmg information: revenues grew by an underlying# 6% in the quarter. Reported revenues benefited from the stronger US dollar. Genscape, the energy business, continued to deliver double-digit underlying# growth. The underlying# revenue growth rate at Hobsons, the education business, accelerated to double-digits during the quarter. The property information portfolio, which includes Landmark and SearchFlow in the UK, and EDR, Trepp, Xceligent, Buildfax and SiteCompli in the US, delivered low-single digit underlying# growth. Trading at the property information businesses is expected to be adversely impacted by continuing low commercial and residential property transaction volumes. Consequently, the Full Year underlying# revenue growth rate is now expected to be in the high-single digits rather than being around 10%, as previously guided to. Full Year revenue, including the benefit of acquisitions and the stronger US dollar, is expected to be in line with market expectations~.

· dmg events: revenues declined by an underlying# 7% in the quarter. As expected, the weak Canadian energy market had an adverse impact on the Global Petroleum Show, which occurred in June. Reported revenues were also adversely impacted by the absence of digital marketing events, which were disposed of in September 2015.

· Euromoney Institutional Investor: revenues declined by an underlying# 1% in the quarter, an improvement from the 6% decline in the first half of the year. Euromoney released a trading update earlier today and highlighted the early signs of progress from the strategic actions the business is taking to grow subscription revenues and the return to growth of event sponsorship revenues. This has been offset by the continued difficult conditions for advertising and a reduction in delegate revenues.

dmg media

· dmg media: revenues declined by an underlying# 2% in the quarter. Circulation revenues were down 1% due to declining volumes, although benefited from the cover price increase of the Monday to Friday editions of the Daily Mail, which was implemented in February 2016. Both the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday continue to hold significant market share of 22.8% and 21.8% respectively*. The cover price of The Mail on Sunday was increased by 10 pence to £1.70 on 10 July 2016. The disposal of Wowcher, which occurred in November 2015, had an adverse impact on reported growth and dmg media's total reported revenues declined by 6% in the quarter.

Total advertising revenues across dmg media were down by an underlying# 4%, with a 10% decline in print advertising being partly offset by 12% growth in digital advertising. For the three weeks since 26 June 2016, dmg media's quarter end, total advertising revenues for the business have increased by an underlying# 1% compared to last year, with an 8% decline in print advertising being more than offset by 19% growth in digital advertising.

· Mail businesses: MailOnline's advertising revenues increased by an underlying# £3 million (18%), partly offsetting a decline of £4 million (11%) at the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday for the quarter. Advertising revenues across the Mail businesses as a whole, for print and digital combined, were consequently down by 2%.

· MailOnline: underlying# digital advertising growth of 18% in the quarter reflected continued encouraging growth in both the UK and the US. MailOnline's global monthly unique browsers in June 2016 stood at 236 million, up 25 million or 12% on last year, and average global daily unique browsers were 15.1 million, an increase of 10% on last year.

Net debt / financing

Net debt at 30 June 2016 was £719 million, unchanged since 31 March 2016 and consistent with our expectations given the change in the US dollar exchange rate during the period. The ratio of net debt to EBITDA is expected to be 2.0 or less at the year end.

Active Portfolio Management

dmg information acquired and invested in several early-stage businesses in the energy and US property information sectors during the quarter. Notably, in June, Genscape acquired GP Energy Management, a New York-based provider of energy management services to electricity and gas retailers and generators. In April, Euromoney sold its energy publishing businesses, Gulf Publishing Company and Petroleum Economist, in line with its strategy of actively managing its portfolio of assets.

Outlook

The Group's performance during the third quarter has been broadly in line with expectations. The 'Brexit' result of the UK referendum has created some uncertainty, notably in respect of the UK advertising and property markets. However, DMGT continues to benefit from being a diversified portfolio operating in multiple sectors across B2B and consumer markets, with the majority of operating profits being earned outside the UK. The outlook for the Full Year remains consistent with current market expectations~.

Appointment of Paul Zwillenberg as Chief Executive

Paul Zwillenberg was appointed Chief Executive of DMGT on 1 June 2016, following the retirement of Martin Morgan from the DMGT Board. Paul Zwillenberg was previously Global Leader Media Sector for The Boston Consulting Group and has worked closely with DMGT for 20 years.

Market Abuse Regulation

As with previous financial announcements, the information communicated in this announcement includes inside information. DMGT has included this statement in this announcement in order to comply with the Market Abuse Regulation, which came into effect on 3 July 2016.

A conference call will be held with City analysts at 8.00 am on 21 July 2016. The dial-in number is +44 (0)20 3059 8125. A replay of the call will be available on DMGT's website at www.dmgt.com.

Future trading updates

DMGT's next scheduled announcement of financial information will be a trading update, provisionally scheduled for 29 September 2016.

About DMGT

DMGT manages a balanced multinational portfolio of entrepreneurial companies, with total revenues of almost £2 bn, that provides a diverse range of businesses and consumers with compelling information, analysis, insight, news and entertainment.

Notes

# Underlying revenue is revenue on a like-for-like basis, adjusted for constant exchange rates, disposals, closures, non-annual events occurring in the current and prior year and acquisitions. For dmg information, underlying growth includes the year-on-year organic growth from acquisitions and excludes disposals. For dmg events, the comparisons are between events held in the year and the same events held the previous time. For Euromoney, disposals are excluded and a biennial event that took place in February 2016 is also excluded. For dmg media, underlying comparisons exclude Evenbase and Wowcher, which were disposed of during the prior and current years. dmg media's underlying growth includes the year-on-year organic growth from acquisitions and excludes the revenue from low margin newsprint resale activities.

~ Current City analyst expectations for DMGT for FY 2016 range from £1,806 million to £1,909 million for revenue, from £237 million to £256 million for adjusted profit before tax and from 49.4 pence to 54.8 pence for adjusted basic earnings per share with a consensus of £1,884 million, £248 million and 52.4 pence. Adjusted results are from continuing and discontinued operations and are stated before exceptional items, other gains and losses, impairment of goodwill and intangible assets, pension finance charges and amortisation of intangible assets arising on business combinations. Current City analyst expectations for dmg information revenue range from £458 million to £512 million with a consensus of £490 million.

† dmg media's results are to Sunday 26 June 2016 and are compared to the same thirty nine week period and thirteen week quarter of the prior year.

* Daily Mail's estimated 22.8% compared to 23.4% last year and The Mail on Sunday's estimated 21.8% compared to 22.1% last year. Circulation market share figures are calculated using ABC's June 2015 National Newspapers Report, excluding digital subscribers, and DMGT's own estimates for June 2016, in advance of ABC's June 2016 National Newspapers Report being published on 21 July 2016.

The average £:$ exchange rate for the nine months was £1:$1.46 (against £1:$1.55 in the same period last year).

This trading update is prepared for and addressed only to the Company's shareholders as a whole and to no other person. The Company, its Directors, employees, agents and advisers accept and assume no liability to any person in respect of this trading update save as would arise under English law. Statements contained in this trading update are based on the knowledge and information available to the Group's Directors at the date it was prepared and therefore facts stated and views expressed may change after that date.

This document and any materials distributed in connection with it may include forward-looking statements, beliefs, opinions or statements concerning risks and uncertainties, including statements with respect to the Group's business, financial condition and results of operations. Those statements and statements which contain the words "anticipate", "believe", "intend", "estimate", "expect" and words of similar meaning, reflect the Group's Directors' beliefs and expectations and involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that will occur in the future and which may cause results and developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by those statements and forecasts. No representation is made that any of those statements or forecasts will come to pass or that any forecast results will be achieved. You are cautioned not to place any reliance on such statements or forecasts. Those forward-looking and other statements speak only as at the date of this trading update. The Group undertakes no obligation to release any update of, or revisions to, any forward-looking statements, opinions (which are subject to change without notice) or any other information or statement contained in this trading update. Furthermore, past performance of the Group cannot be relied on as a guide to future performance.

No statement in this document is intended as a profit forecast or a profit estimate and no statement in this document should be interpreted to mean that earnings per DMGT share for the current or future financial years would necessarily match or exceed the historical published earnings per DMGT share.

Nothing in this document is intended to constitute an invitation or inducement to engage in investment activity. This document does not constitute or form part of any offer for sale or subscription of, or any solicitation of any offer to purchase or subscribe for, any securities nor shall it or any part of it nor the fact of its distribution form the basis of, or be relied on in connection with, any contract, commitment or investment decision in relation thereto. This document does not constitute a recommendation regarding any securities.

Daily Mail and General Trust plc

Northcliffe House, 2 Derry Street,

London, W8 5TT

www.dmgt.com

Registered in England and Wales No. 184594