Adjust for one-off items - amortisation and goodwill and £114.4m of gains from selling Evanta and Digital Property Group - and Daily Mail and General Trust's (DMGT) full-year pre-tax profit grew by a solid 10 per cent year on year to £255m. Management also announced a £100m share buy-back programme, while strong cash flow and disposal proceeds allowed the debt pile to be cut by £106m.
The B2B (business-to-business) division remains the growth engine. Although revenues there grew just 1 per cent to £899m, improved efficiencies saw B2B grow overall operating profit by 7 per cent to £237m. Strip out the contribution from Northcliffe Media, which is being sold, and B2B now generates a hefty 79 per cent of group operating profit. The capacity to exclude struggling local media arm Northcliffe is something management has long wanted to do. That's now being offloaded to Local World, a joint venture that includes Trinity Mirror, for £52.5m in cash and a 38.7 per cent stake in the venture. Meanwhile, underlying revenue at Associated Newspapers grew 2 per cent, to £848m, helped by higher digital revenues and cover price increases. Management, however, remains cautious about medium-term prospects for newspapers, pointing to uncertainties in the UK advertising market.
Broker Liberum Capital expects pre-tax profit of £280m for 2013, giving EPS of 53.3p (from £249m and 48.5p for 2012).
DAILY MAIL AND GENERAL TRUST (DMGT) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD PRICE: | 517p | MARKET VALUE: | £1.98bn** | |
| TOUCH: | 517-518 | 12-MONTH HIGH: | 535p | LOW: 361p |
| DIVIDEND YIELD: | 3.5% | PE RATIO: | 10 | |
| NET ASSET VALUE**: | 42p** | NET DEBT: | £613m | |
| Year to 30 Sep | Turnover (£bn) | Pre-tax profit (£m) | Earnings per share (p) | Dividend per share (p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 2.31 | -68.0 | nil | 14.7 |
| 2009 | 2.06 | -301 | -57.4 | 14.7 |
| 2010 | 1.97 | 146 | 43.5 | 16.0 |
| 2011† | 1.75 | 126 | 29.7 | 17.0 |
| 2012† | 1.75 | 206 | 52.9 | 18.0 |
| % change | - | +10 | +7 | +6 |
Ex-div: 28 Nov Payment: 8 Feb *Includes intangible assets of £986m, or 256p a share **Includes both ordinary and non-voting shares †Adjusted to reflect the disposal of Northcliffe Media | ||||
