Costs are rising at Perform (PER), but revenue is growing almost twice as fast, and cash profits - after one-off costs and share options - doubled to £37.5m last year. With over £130m of revenue already contracted for 2013, the owner and distributor of online sports broadcast rights is on track to make the profit of £56.7m and adjusted EPS of 15.5p (from 11.1p in 2012) forecast by broker Numis Securities.
Streaming live sports events and statistics to internet bookies, mobile operators and broadcasters generated £93m of revenue from content distribution, up 43 per cent on the year before after roughly doubling in the UK, Asia and the Americas. Higher licence fees from sales of its in-play Watch&Bet service, and £10m from sports data firm Runningball, which it bought in May, generated much of that. Already, Perform has contracts in place to broadcast 14,500 live events this year, almost as many as in 2012, and 10,000 for 2014.
Advertising was big business, too. Buying German website Spox ahead of Euro 2012 and rapid video advertising growth fuelled a five-fold increase in European advertising revenues. Global advertising sales more than doubled to £31.7m and now make up a fifth of the business. Perform is already getting its Goal.com sites in shape for next summer's World Cup in Brazil. New mobile services for Goal helped generate an extra 29 per cent of subscription revenue.
PERFORM (PER) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 429p | MARKET VALUE: | £1.02bn | |
| TOUCH: | 420-430p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 451p | LOW: 280p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | nil | PE RATIO: | 78 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE | 71p* | NET CASH: | £26.5m | |
| Year to 31 Dec | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 67.4 | 7.35 | 4.60 | nil |
| 2011 | 103 | 3.49 | 1.40 | nil |
| 2012 | 152 | 16.9 | 5.50 | nil |
| % change | +47 | +385 | +293 | - |
*Includes intangible assets of £208.7m, or 87p a share | ||||
