As reported by Future plc:
Financial & operational highlights
- Revenue was down (3)% year-on-year at £378.4m (HY 2024: £391.5m), with (1)% organic decline combined with adverse foreign exchange and previously announced business closures.
- The Group delivered organic growth in Q1 2025, which was offset by the uncertain macroeconomic sentiment in March, impacting US direct advertising
Across the divisions:
- B2C - the Group's largest division - organic revenue was flat in the period with excellent performance in Magazines of +1% organic growth offset by decline in Media driven by digital advertising. Media revenues grew by +3% in Q1, but, as noted above, was impacted by macroeconomic uncertainty in March.
- Go.Compare revenue declined (1)%, as expected car quote volumes declined given the strong revenue comparator. However, we saw good diversification with +10% revenue growth from non-car insurance.
- B2B revenue continues to be challenging with a (13)% organic decline, driven by tech enterprise. Other verticals in B2B such as financial services and education are in growth.
- Profit margin was in line with last year with 27% adjusted operating margin reflecting annualisation of investment and the impact of inflation which is expected to reduce in H2, resulting in an adjusted operating profit decline of (5)% to £100.7m (HY 2024: £105.8m). Statutory operating profit was up +8% to £69.1m (HY 2024: £63.7m) mainly reflecting reduction in adjusting items and reduction in share base payment partially offset by adjusted operating profit movement.
- Adjusted diluted EPS is +4% in the period, reflecting lower interest and the benefit of the execution of the share buy-back programmes.
- The Group remains highly cash generative with adjusted free cash flow of £111.5m (HY 2024: £126.0m), representing 111% of adjusted operating profit (HY 2024: 119%). Cash generated from operations was £115.9m (HY 2024: £130.4m)
- Optimising our portfolio - ensuring we have the right portfolio of assets is a continuous process.
- During the period, we successfully actioned the previously announced brand closures to focus the portfolio for growth.
- We acquired RNWL in March 2025 for a £2.8m initial consideration with a potential further earn-out subject to performance to focus our customers' loyalty in Go.Compare (see note 17).
- Announcing the acquisition in May 2025 of Kwizly for £0.7m initial consideration which provides audience engagement tools.
- £43.2m was returned to shareholders during the period comprising £39.5m through share buybacks (HY 2024: £32.0m) and dividends of £3.7m (HY 2024: £3.9m). On 1 April 2025, there was £30m remaining on the current share buyback programme, with the Group announcing a new additional share buyback programme of up to £55m.
- Leverage was stable at 1.1x (FY 2024: 1.1x) with net debt at the end of the half-year of £241.2m (FY 2024: £256.5m). Total available debt facilities at the end of March 2025 were £650m (FY 2024: £650m). Board changes
- Kevin Li Ying joined the Company's Board as chief executive officer on 31 March 2025.
Outlook
- Following a weaker performance in March, US direct digital advertising returned to growth in April.
- At this stage, given ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty, the Group believes it is prudent to adopt a more cautious view on the second half and expects a low single-digit decline in FY 2025 organic revenue.
- In addition, at prevailing rates, foreign exchange represents a headwind.
- The Group continues to expect to deliver a stable adjusted operating margin of 28% alongside continued strong cash generation.
- The Group will provide a trading update in July 2025.
- Beyond FY 2025, the Group expects to deliver accelerating organic revenue growth.
Kevin Li Ying, Future's chief executive, said last week: "Today's half-year results reflect the strength of our diversified proposition, delivering a resilient performance in what remains a challenging macroeconomic environment.
"It is a huge privilege to become CEO of a company I first joined over 20 years ago as a programmer. In my first few weeks as CEO, I have focused on evaluating growth opportunities to leverage our core strengths: our growth mindset, our track record of innovation through product and data, and our combination of agility and rigorous execution.
"We are building the business for tomorrow whilst delivering on today, ensuring we attract and reach a valuable audience through our powerful brands and drive effective monetisation to deliver growth.
"Whilst the wider macroeconomic environment remains challenging, the quality of our content and intent-driven audience, and the uniqueness of our tech stack, underpinned by our strong financial characteristics, position us well to deliver long term growth in what is an ever-evolving media landscape."
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