As reported on the DMGT website: The international group, which owns a portfolio of market-leading digital, information, media and events businesses, announced adjusted pre-tax profit of £137m for the six months from October 2012. It said its full year outlook remained unchanged following a good underlying performance.
Growth from international revenues, the strength of its B2B companies, improving digital advertising and Mail Online revenues, and print production efficiencies all contributed to the performance, DMGT said.
Martin Morgan (pictured), DMGT CEO, said, "We have delivered a good underlying performance in the first half reflecting the strength of our B2B companies and the resilience of our national consumer titles. As expected, reported operating profit increased despite a decline in reported revenue resulting from recent disposals.
Our international B2B companies have increased their underlying revenues and profits by 6% and 5% respectively. Our UK consumer business, dmg media, continued to experience challenging conditions and underlying revenues were slightly down, although the increase in digital revenues more than offset the decline in print advertising revenues and the business delivered a 7% underlying increase in operating profit*.
We have continued to actively manage our portfolio of businesses and have made several acquisitions and disposals during the period and into the second half, to improve the overall quality and growth prospects of the group.
Relative to last year, the first half of the year benefited from the timing of biennial events and the absence of a bond redemption premium. Conversely we expect the comparatives in the second half of the year to be adversely impacted by the timing of biennial events and the Olympics, which were one-off benefits for us in the second half of the last financial year. Overall, the outlook for the full year remains unchanged."
