According to Centaur Media:
FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS
* Reported revenues +3% to £72.5m; underlying revenues +2%
o Digital premium content revenues +19% (reported and underlying)
o Underlying live events revenues +10%; reported live events revenues +13%
o Advertising revenues -10% (reported and underlying)
* Adjusted operating profits £9.1m (2015: £10.5m); adjusted operating margin 12.6% (2015: 14.9%)
* Reported operating loss narrowed to £3.9m (2015: £4.7m)
* Strong cash flow performance:
o £12.4m positive working capital swing from a £6.4m outflow in 2015 to a £6.0m inflow in 2016
o Adjusted operating cash flow of £13.9m (2015: £3.3m) with cash conversion of 153% (2015: 31%). Operating cash flow of £15.3m (2015: £6.1m)
o Further reduction in net debt to £14.1m (2015: £17.9m)
* A reported loss before tax of £4.4m (2015: £5.6m) was driven by a non-cash impairment of goodwill charge of £7.2m (2015: £11.9m), an additional, separately reported charge for impairment of trade receivables of £1.8m (2015: £nil) and £1.2m (2015: £0.7m) of exceptional operating costs relating to restructuring.
* Adjusted diluted EPS of 4.5 pence down 15% (2015: 5.3 pence). Diluted EPS of (3.8) pence (2015: (4.8) pence)
* Final dividend of 1.5p making total for the year of 3.0p, in line with last year
STRONG OPERATIONAL PROGRESS
* Improving revenue mix:
o Digital revenues increase by 9% from £27.6m to £30.0m
o Digital premium content increase by 19% from £14.5m to £17.3m
o Underlying exhibition revenues increase by 13% from £13.5m (excluding AMS) to £15.3m
* Focusing on priority markets:
o Oystercatchers acquisition adds additional dimension to Marketing segment offer
o Evaluating acquisition opportunities in core markets to further reinforce B2B core offering
o Exploring disposal of Home Interest during 2017
* Monetising content:
o Lawyer.com paywall in place, premium content growth +48%
o Marketing Week launches successful Elearning platform
* Digital publishing migration:
o Application of WordPress platform
o Improved unique users across all publishing brand sites
* Swag Mukerji appointed to Board as Chief Financial Officer
* The fall in high margin advertising revenues will result in a 2017 profit reduction which is expected to reverse in 2018 as the strategy to address the industry trend by monetising content and expertise materialises
Commenting on the results, Andria Vidler, Chief Executive said: “We’ve delivered results for the year in line with expectations despite continuing headwinds in the advertising market.
We achieved these results whilst managing significant change in the business, as we reposition Centaur for the future. We have made good progress with our revenue mix, with digital increasing to 41% of total revenues.
Whilst the state of the advertising market continues to present us with near term challenges in some of our portfolio, we expect increasing digital subscription revenues to benefit performance in future years. We are confident that our strategy of converting non-paying readers into paying customers is building long term value for our shareholders.”
