Headline figures from Trinity Mirror (TNI) don’t tell the full story. The Daily Mirror publisher made progress last year, slashing net debt by £45.8m and reducing its pension deficit by a similar amount to £252m. Viewed on an adjusted basis, the group's operating profit grew 1 per cent to £108m.
Trinity’s strategy has been both to cut and to expand. It reduced adjusted operating costs by 6 per cent to £563m, introducing shared content across its publications, while launching several local newspapers including north and south editions of the Manchester Evening News. But surviving print media’s unremitting decline hasn’t been easy. "We're doing it as well as we possibly can," says chief executive Simon Fox.
That may not be enough - Trinity’s revenues fell 3 per cent year on year in January and February. But that was an improvement from their 6 per cent decline in 2013. Moreover, its digital publications performed well, with average monthly unique users growing 59 per cent to 41m and display advertising sales rising 30 per cent. That helped turn a first-half decline in digital sales into 17 per cent growth in the second half.
Broker Numis nudged up its adjusted pre-tax profit and EPS forecasts for 2014 by about 2 per cent to £94.8m and 30p (2013: 32p).
| TRINITY MIRROR (TNI) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 224p | MARKET VALUE: | £577m | |
| TOUCH: | 223-224p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 239p | LOW: 83p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | nil | PE RATIO: | na | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | * | NET DEBT: | £97m | |
| Year to 29 Dec | Turnover (£bn) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 0.76 | 42 | 11.5 | nil |
| 2010 | 0.76 | 124 | 44.6 | nil |
| 2011 (restated) | 0.76 | 74 | 31.4 | nil |
| 2012 (restated) | 0.71 | 10 | 6.8 | nil |
| 2013 | 0.66 | -161 | -39.0 | nil |
| % change | -7 | - | - | - |
*Negative shareholders' funds of £572m, includes intangible assets of £0.68bn, or 265p a share | ||||
