UPDATE:United Business Media Profit Up;Acquires Chinese Assets
2010年7月30日 - 4:24PM
Dow Jones News
United Business Media PLC (UBM.LN) Friday said it is on track to
meet full-year forecasts as the events and publishing group posted
a 7.3% rise in first-half pretax profit, but remained cautious
about the outlook.
"While we see evidence of improved trading conditions in many of
the markets and geographies in which we operate, we remain cautious
regarding the pace, depth and sustainability of the wider
macro-economic recovery." Chief Executive David Levin said in a
statement.
Earnings before interest, tax and amortization for the six
months ended June 30 rose to GBP91.1 million from GBP84.9 million a
year earlier. Adjusted operating profit was up 6.3% year-on-year to
GBP83.2 million.
However, group revenue fell 0.2% to GBP434.3 million from GBP435
million. Events revenue was up 1.5%, while data, services and
online revenue rose 2.3%. Targeting, distribution and monitoring
revenue rose 7.4%. However, print revenue was down 13.9% and the
company said it is continuing to take action to address the impact
of a shift away from print after closing four titles in the first
half..
UBM also said Friday it has acquired the Shanghai International
Children-Baby-Maternity Products Expo and related businesses for up
to $16.1 million. The company added that it aims to make further
acquisitions in the second half of the fiscal year.
The company, which publishes a range of business titles, owns
news distribution service PR Newswire and runs an events and
conferences business, kept its interim dividend unchanged at 6
pence.
Publishing and events groups such as UBM, Reed Elsevier PLC
(REL.LN) and Informa PLC ( INF.LN) have suffered from customers
tightening budgets during the recession, as well as from weak
advertising markets, but are starting to show cautious optimism
about a recovery.
Anglo-Dutch publishing and events group Reed Elsevier Thursday
cheered the market with better-than-expected first half results and
said it had seen an improvement in the general economic environment
although it warned that "recovery will be gradual as conditions
remain constrained in many of our markets."
Informa more than doubled first-half pretax profit Tuesday and
boosted its interim dividend by 25% as it expects growth in the
second half to be driven by continued improvement in its events and
training division and stabilization of subscription revenue in its
publishing division.
However, it did caution that recovery in the events sector is at
an early stage.
United Business Media shares closed Thursday at 573 pence,
valuing the company at GBP1.4 billion.
-By Tommy Stubbington, Dow Jones Newswires; 44-20-7842-9268;
tommy.stubbington@dowjones.com and Simon Zekaria, Dow Jones
Newswires; +44 207 842-9410; simon.zekaria@dowjones.com