Magazine publisher Future has been pushing its digital business hard and, in the UK at least, that has offset the ongoing decline in print sales. A successful launch on Apple's Newsstand proved crucial here and management is confident of hitting targets this year.
It's clear why. Almost 200,000 digital magazines were sold during the period and its websites attracted an extra 10 million users, driving digital revenue up 37 per cent to £9.6m. And iPad owners have already bought more than 830,000 copies of Future's titles since October. That has generated gross revenue of over £3m, or £500,000 a month. Strip out Apple's cut and it's still more than £2m which should help the US unit, where revenue fell a fifth to $18.3m (£11.6m) and operating losses grew to $2.9m – a return to profit is anticipated next year. Much will depend on the American version of Future's Tech Radar website and next month's launch of Bike Radar. If all goes well, Chinese, Brazilian and South Korean readers will get their own version in time. In contrast, print sales slipped 10 per cent as subscriptions fell and 400,000 fewer magazines were sold each month.
Broker Peel Hunt expects adjusted full-year pre-tax profit of £5.6m, giving adjusted EPS of 1.2p (£3.9m and 0.9p in 2011).
FUTURE (FUTR) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 10.75p | MARKET VALUE: | £35.6m | |
| TOUCH: | 10.75-11p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 19p | Low: 7p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | nil | PE RATIO: | na | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 18p* | NET DEBT: | 26% | |
| Half-year to 31 Mar | Turnover (£m) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 68.8 | 1.2 | 0.2 | 0.5 |
| 2012 | 61.1 | -0.7 | -0.3 | nil |
| % change | -11 | - | - | -100 |
*Includes intangible assets of £95.2m, or 29p a share | ||||
