Media company Future’s share price jumps as earnings and profits rise
Media company Future’s share price jumped five per cent this morning after the publisher of Tech Radar and PC Gamer reported a jump in earnings and operating profit.
The figures
Group revenue fell slightly, from £59.8m to £59m, for the year to 30 September as Future made a push to move from magazine publishing to e-commerce and events.
But earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation, impairment of intangible assets and exceptional items (Ebitdae) increased 31 per cent to £4.7m.
And Future reported an operating profit of £2.3m, up 188 per cent from £0.8m in 2015.
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Breaking down revenue by divisions, the media division – which includes e-commerce and events – was up 14 per cent to £23.9m. Magazine revenue, meanwhile, fell from £38.9m to £35.1m.
Future’s share price jumped five per cent to 9.25p on Wednesday morning.
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Why it’s interesting
Future, like other traditional print publishers, has seen a need to diversify its revenue streams, with circulations and print advertising revenue falling.
The media company said its websites attracted more than 45m unique monthly users in the fourth quarter, up 14 per cent on the third quarter. And, during the course of the year, it launched five new events.
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Future, which acquired rival group Imagine Publishing in October, said revenue at its two flagship online brands – Techradar.com and PC Gamer – was up 49 per cent and 43 per cent respectively.
What the company said
Chief executive Zillah Byng-Thorne:
We focus on content that connects with our substantial and growing audience base and monetise their needs through increasingly diversified revenue streams, which include e-commerce, event sponsorship, digital advertising, licensing, content publishing, subscriptions, newstrade sales and event ticketing.
We are also taking advantage of the fragmented print market and have substantially increased our scale and sector coverage with a number of acquisitions – most notably Imagine Publishing in October 2016. Imagine transforms the scale of the business and brings significant operational synergies and cash generation opportunities.