Headline figures don't really give the full picture at Perform, the owner and distributor of online sports broadcast rights. In fact, add back one-off items and amortisation of goodwill and adjusted pre-tax profits soared from £3.8m to £9.4m at the interim stage. For the full-year broker Peel Hunt expects profits to rise from £9.2m to £32.3m, driving adjusted EPS up two thirds to 10.6p. True, the shares are trading on a hefty 36 times forecast earnings, but assuming Peel Hunt is right and pre-tax profits double again to £68m by 2014, the multiple drops to a more reasonable 17 times.
Perform's content distribution business - which sells typically to online bookmakers, mobile operators and broadcasters - was boosted by the sale of licences to new and existing customers of its Watch&Bet service. Revenue here rose 39 per cent to £40.6m, helped by a one-month £1.2m contribution from recently acquired RunningBall, a provider of real-time sports data. Moreover, Watch&Bet is expanding its geographical spread, with all 10 new licences awarded in the first half (taking the total to 40) were overseas. The business broadcast a third more live events, too.
Advertising and sponsorship revenue are growing strongly, too, up from £2.3m to £6.3m, as sales of pre-roll video adverts on its video demand platform (embedded in over 1,400 websites) surged and three new territories were secured including Canada and Norway (taking the total to 23).
| PERFORM (PER) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 378p | MARKET VALUE: | £903m | |
| TOUCH: | 375-379p | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 447p | LOW: 164p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | nil | PE RATIO: | 105 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE: | 69p* | NET CASH: | £24.8m | |
| Half-year to 30 Jun | Turnover (£m) | Pretax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 45.1 | -2.21 | -1.00 | nil |
| 2012 | 67.4 | 3.41 | 1.20 | nil |
| % change | +49 | - | - | - |
*Includes intangible assets of £208m, or 87p a share | ||||
