Interim Management Statement

RNS Number : 3462U

Centaur Media PLC

14 May 2008

 



14th May 2008

Centaur Media plc

("Centaur" or "the Group")

INTERIM MANAGEMENT STATEMENT

Trading in line with expectations

Results under-pinned by healthy new product pipeline and effective profit improvement initiatives

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Centaur Media plc (notes i & ii), the specialist business publishing and information company, today issues an interim management statement covering the period from 1 January 2008 to the date of this announcement and incorporating the four month period to 30th April 2008.  

Overall trading performance review for the four month period ending 30 April 2008

Group revenues over the four month period are approximately 3% ahead of the same period in the prior year, led by continued growth in online and events.      

Print advertising revenues have declined in the last four months, due principally to further deterioration in the mortgage market and some reduction in the level of recruitment advertising in our magazines.  However, this has been compensated for by a strong performance from our magazine-branded websites, where advertising revenues have risen by 17% in the period.  This includes an accelerated rate of growth in online recruitment advertising, which has more than offset the decline in print recruitment advertising further validating the Company's online strategy.  

Events revenues have delivered double digit growth in the four month period, recovering from a first half decline. This result has benefited in particular from strong demand for our established awards events, a number of new launches and significant growth in our largest exhibition, the National Homebuilding Show, which ran in April. 

There has been no material change to trading conditions in the period since 30th April.

Current trading and outlook 

The Board expects the Group's results to the year ending 30th June 2008 to be in line with expectations.

The overall economic outlook for the UK has evidently become weaker in 2008.   Centaur has experienced some weakness in a number of its served markets, and the rate of revenue growth has been slower in the second half.  As reported, the mortgage market in particular has continued to deteriorate, although Centaur's share of this market has increased significantly in the past few months, partly offsetting the effect of market decline.  

In view of the slowdown in the UK economy, the Board anticipates that trading conditions in the Group's core markets will continue to reflect these challenges.  However, the Board believes that its strategy of building and acquiring market-leading multi-platform brands serving a broad range of niche business communities will enable the Group to make further good progress in the current financial year and beyond.  In addition, we have already taken a number of actions to reduce costs, with further improvements implemented following the restructuring in the Marketing and Creative Division announced in February.  Our pipeline of new products and ongoing strength in online and event revenues are expected to continue to contribute to profit and margin growth.  

Other than as detailed above in this interim management statement, there have been no material events or transactions in the period from 1 January 2008 to 14 May 2008. 

Enquiries:

Centaur Media plc	Geoff Wilmot Mike Lally	Tel: [phone]
GavinAnderson & Company	Robert Speed Janine Brewis	Tel: [phone]

Notes 

• Centaur's product portfolio currently includes 10 weekly or fortnightly magazines, 21 other magazines, over 20 online products or services, 25 awards or other sponsored events, 20 exhibitions and 80 conferences.

• Centaur reports its results within 5 distinct business sector segments, namely Marketing and Creative, Legal and Financial, Engineering and Construction, Perfect Information and General Business Services. The first 3 segments comprise principally the following vertical business communities in which Centaur publishes market-leading magazine titles: Marketing Services, Creative Services, New Media, Retail Financial Products, Legal Services, Engineering, Private Homebuilding. Centaur also enjoys strong positions in a number of other specialist communities, namely HR, Construction, Logistics, Recruitment and Public/Private Finance. In addition, it serves the Business Travel community with 3 leading trade shows in the UK and overseas and an associated web service.

 

END

 

 

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