As reported by Centaur Media:
Financial highlights
- Group revenue increased 9.0% to £70.5m; underlying revenue decline of 1.6% (Reflects a full-year of revenues from MarketMakers and increased revenues from brands including The Lawyer, Marketing Week, MW Mini MBA, and The Meeting Show)
- Non-advertising revenues now 82% of total revenues (2017: 79%)
- Recurring revenues have grown to 48% (2017: 44%)
- Underlying adjusted operating profits increased 18% to £5.2 million
Segmental breakdown of adjusted operating profit
- Marketing achieved £1.7m in a transitional year (2017: £1.7m)
- Financial services strengthened to £1.2m (2017: £0.6m)
- Professional services, including The Lawyer increased by 28% to £2.3m (2017: £1.Sm)
Statutory operating loss of £14.0m (2017: loss of £0.3m), and a statutory loss of £14.2m (2017: loss £0.7m) after goodwill impairment of £13.1 million, primarily relating to the strategic rationalisation of certain events and revenue streams to be discontinued within the marketing portfolio.
The Group had net cash of £0.1m (2017: £4.1m) at 31 December after making an earnout payment of £1.Sm in respect of MarketMakers and paying dividends of £4.3m.
Adjusted diluted EPS of 2.6p (2017: 3.2p). Diluted loss per share of 9.9p (2017: EPS 14.3p).
Final dividend of 1.5p, contributing to a total for the year of 3.0p, in line with previous year. The future distribution policy will be subject to the progress of the simplification strategy.
Strategic progress
Strategic review confirmed the need to focus on fewer sectors to drive margin growth:
- Creation of XEIM to develop business information, intelligence and consulting services, primarily in the marketing sector
- Initiated a process to explore the potential divestment of non-core businesses
- Delivery of cost efficiencies associated with Group simplification to create a higher margin operating model
Outlook
This has been a year of good strategic progress at Centaur. The changes we are making to our portfolio will allow us to focus on the growth of XEIM, our largest business, and drive efficiencies derived from a simpler group structure.
Board change
Neil Johnson is to stand down as Chairman in June 2019 to take on a new role, and will be succeeded by Colin Jones, who joined the Board last September and was previously CFO of Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC.
Andria Vidler, Chief Executive, commented: "We are pleased to have made good strategic progress this year, to have increased adjusted operating profits and to have accelerated the simplification of the Group's structure. This will create a more efficient and focused business with a higher margin.
"XEIM, the new name for the Group's marketing businesses, enables us to offer a more integrated and coordinated service to help our clients improve their marketing performance."
