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Daily Mail & General Trust profits and revenues slip as it continues transformation

Published: 03:57 05 Dec 2019 EST

Daily Mail and General Trust - Daily Mail & General Trust profits and revenues slip as it continues transformation

Right-wing leaning newspaper group Daily Mail & General Trust PLC (LON:DMGT) saw profits and revenues slip in its latest full-year as it entered the “next phase” of its transformation plans.

For the year ended 30 September, the owner of the Daily Mail and Metro newspapers reported a pre-tax profit of £145mln down 21% year-on-year, while revenues dipped 1% to £1.4bn.

READ: Daily Mail and General Trust offloads energy information business for US$364mln

However, the firm reported a 4% rise in cash operating income, which was attributed to “improving operational execution” across DMGT’s portfolio of businesses, which had been partly offset by investments.

Paul Zwillenberg, the group’s chief executive, added that the consumer media segment had “outperformed the market” during the year, although its business to business (B2B) arms had seen a more mixed performance.

Looking ahead, DMGT said it expected revenues for its current financial year to be “broadly stable on an underlying basis” while the overall financial performance is expected to reflect “significant portfolio changes” that took place in the prior year.

The current year will also allow investors to view any benefits from DMGT’s acquisition of the ‘I’ newspaper, which it bought last week for £49.6mln.

“The recent acquisition of the 'i' demonstrates the opportunities we have to invest in high quality, content-led businesses with a compelling strategic and financial rationale", Zwillenberg said.

“We are now in the next phase of the Group's transformation, optimising our business through targeted and disciplined investment whilst maintaining significant financial flexibility to enhance shareholder value”, he added.

DMGT’s shares were 1.5% higher at 810p in early deals.

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