A resurgent advertising market and this summer’s FIFA World Cup helped UTV Media (UTV), the owner of talkSPORT radio station, increase its first-half operating profit by 41 per cent to over £11m.
Its Radio GB division was the star performer, with sales up by a fifth and operating profit more than doubling to north of £6m. That was driven by strong revenue growth at talkSPORT, which attracted a record 3.4 million weekly listeners last quarter. The station is on track to increase sales by 7 per cent this quarter, which should help group sales grow 3 per cent.
UTV plans to bolster its presence in the Republic of Ireland by launching UTV Ireland, which will feature ITV shows such as Coronation Street and Mr Selfridge. The group expects the unit to incur operating losses of £2-3m next year as it gradually builds an audience and attracts advertisers, but thinks it can become the second most-watched channel after state broadcaster RTE1. However, it needs to invest heavily next year, which prompted broker Numis to slash its pre-tax profit and EPS forecasts for 2015 by 13 per cent to £18.3m and 14.5p - flat on this year’s expected result.
The group also narrowed its focus on TV and radio by selling off its broadband and internet portal businesses. Nevertheless, it expects third-quarter TV revenues to be flat as certain major ad campaigns aren’t applicable to its core Northern Irish audiences.
| UTV MEDIA (UTV) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 209p | MARKET VALUE: | £ 200m | |
| TOUCH: | 207-209p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 268p | LOW: 163p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 3.4% | PE RATIO: | 11 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 104p* | NET DEBT: | 43% | |
| Half-year to 30 Jun | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 (restated) | 51.2 | 6.1 | 3.5 | 1.75 |
| 2014 | 57.8 | 10.0 | 8.3 | 1.82 |
| % change | +13 | +64 | +135 | +4 |
Ex-div:03 Sep Payment:15 Oct *Includes intangible assets of £174m, or 182p a share | ||||
