Interim Management Statement

RNS Number : 5246W

Future PLC

30 July 2009

 



30 JULY 2009 

FUTURE plc

Interim Management Statement

Future plc, the international special-interest media group, today publishes its Interim Management Statement for the nine months ended 30 June 2009.  

Outlook for the year ending 30 September 2009

There has been no deterioration in trading conditions since the half year and the Board remains of the view that the Group's results for the full year to 30 September 2009 will be in line with market expectations.  

Trading summary for the nine months ended 30 June 2009

Future's cost flexibility and the underlying strength of its special-interest portfolio continue to provide resilience in exceptionally challenging market conditions:

• Revenue down 2%, helped by exchange rates

• Advertising down 4%: within this a 15% increase in online significantly offsetting an

  8% decline in print 

• Online advertising now comprises 22% of advertising revenue (up from 19%)

• Customer publishing up 4%, driven by US growth

• All costs firmly under control

• Healthy balance sheet maintained with a comfortable level of net debt

Group revenue:

Nine months ended 30 June 2009	% change	% change constant currency
Circulation revenue	(2%)	(8%)
Advertising revenue	(4%)	(14%)
Customer publishing	+ 4%	(4%)
Licensing, events & other	+ 12%	+ 8%
Total Revenue	(2%)	(9%)

All comparisons are with the 9 months ended 30 June 2008. The most significant currency affecting the Group is the US Dollar which strengthened by 24% in the 9 months to 30 June 2009. Two thirds of Group revenue is generated by our UK business and one third by our US business.  

 Stevie Spring, Future plc Chief Executive said:

'We have continued to focus on navigating through exceptionally tough market conditions and thanks to the underlying strength of our specialist business, our cost flexibility and our hardworking teams, we remain on course to meet market expectations for the full year.  

While it is premature to talk about a market recovery, there has been no deterioration in trading conditions since the half year. And I am confident that when recovery comes, Future is well-positioned to benefit. Every action we've taken to mitigate revenue shortfalls has been proportionate; we've continued to invest in both new products and new people and, more broadly, our strategy remains firmly on track. We are in the best shape we can be in for the mid-term.'

Business update (all numbers in constant currency)

In the UK, we've seen resilient revenue performances in aggregate across the business, with the exception of PC gaming, personal computing and automotive. Console gaming had tough prior year comparatives but is trading solidly. Overall, we have continued to invest but have successfully mitigated a revenue shortfall of 6% through active and aggressive management of costs.  

In the US, the newsstand distribution dispute which impacted H1 is now fully behind us and trading, though tough, is normalising. We have greater exposure to generic advertising market volatility in this territory, particularly to our digital offer. Overall, including the disruption, revenue declined 13%, but we have reduced operating costs substantially in the period.  

We continue to invest appropriately in our digital strategy which is making strong progress and, as previously reported, we have launched three newsstand magazines this year all of which are currently performing above expectations.

Financial position at 30 June 2009

The Group continues to be strongly cash generative and maintains a healthy balance sheet, with a comfortable level of net debt (£23.6m at 30 June 2009, representing 1.57 times bank EBITDA). 

The Group is operating comfortably within all bank covenants and has no other debt, no defined-benefit pension schemes, no liabilities in respect of unoccupied property and no material contingent liabilities.

During the six months to 31 March 2009 the Group made a significant provision of £1.6m in respect of ageing receivables. There has been no increase in this provision.  

Next trading update

Future will provide a pre-close trading update on 29 September 2009 and will announce its Annual Results (for the year to 30 September 2009) on Thursday 26 November 2009.

 Enquiries:

Future:
Stevie Spring, Chief Executive Tel: [phone]
John Bowman, Group Finance Director Tel: [phone]
Vicky Bacon, Head of Group Communications Tel: [phone]

About Future:

Future plc is an international special-interest media group that is listed on the London Stock Exchange (symbol FUTR). Founded in 1985 with one magazine, today we have operations in the UK, US and Australia creating over 180 special-interest publications, websites and events for people who are passionate about their interests. We hold strong market positions in games, film, music, technology, cycling, automotive and crafts. Our biggest-selling magazines include T3, Total Film, Digital Camera, Fast Car, Classic Rock, Guitar World, Official Xbox Magazine, Official Playstation Magazine, Nintendo Power, Maximum PC and MacLife. Our websites include gamesradar.com, bikeradar.com, techradar.com, and musicradar.com. Future sells nearly 4 million magazines each month; we attract more than 25 million unique visitors to our websites; and we host 25 annual live events that attract hundreds of thousands of enthusiasts. In addition, Future exports, syndicates or licenses its publications to 90 countries internationally, making us the UK's number one exporter and licensor of monthly magazines.

This Interim Management Statement (IMS) is prepared for and addressed only to the Company's shareholders as a whole and to no other person. The Company, its directors, employees, agents or advisers do not accept or assume responsibility to any other person to whom this IMS is shown or into whose hands it may come and any such responsibility or liability is expressly disclaimed. Statements contained in this IMS are based on the knowledge and information available to the Directors at the date it was prepared and therefore the facts stated and views expressed may change after that date. By their nature, the statements concerning the risks and uncertainties facing the Group in this IMS involve uncertainty since future events and circumstances can cause results and developments to differ materially from those anticipated. To the extent that this IMS contains any statement dealing with any time after the date of its preparation such statement is merely predictive and speculative as it relates to events and circumstances which are yet to occur. The Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

Key Performance Indicators

The table below shows Key Performance Indicators for the six months ended 31 March 2009 and for previous accounting periods:

	6 months to 31 March 2009	6 months to 31 March  2008	12 months to  30 September 2008
Annual growth in revenue (at constant currency)	-11%	Flat	+2%
EBITA operating margin (as a %)	6.0%	8.9%	9.1%
Absolute EBITA (in Sterling)	£4.6m	£7.0m	£14.9m
Change in adjusted earnings per share (as a %)	-50%	Flat	+12%
Number of magazines sold per month	3.7m	4.2m	4.3m
Proportion of magazines sold from total number printed	See notes 1-3	See notes 1-3	See notes 1-3
Proportion of Group's business derived from our brands compared with partnership publishing	76:24 (note 4)	77:23 (note 4)	76:24 (note 4)
Number of unique users logging on to our websites per month	25m (note 5)	11m (note 5)	18m (note 5)
Growth in total advertising revenue (as a % at constant currency)	-15%	+4%	+3%
Proportion of advertising revenue that is online (as a %)	24%	19%	18%
Human Capital	See note 6	See note 6	See note 6
Net bank debt	£22.8m	£25.1m	£21.9m

Notes:

• The majority of magazines printed by the Group are sold, and those unsold are mainly recycled and used for newspaper production. The precise proportion sold at newsstand is a detailed KPI each month for every title. However, the Group believes that it is commercially sensitive to disclose these percentages, since competitors typically do not release this information. Magazines printed for subscription have no wastage.

• In the UK 77% of magazines (by volume) are sold at newsstand. Our overall UK average newsstand efficiency has decreased in 2009 by 3% compared with the first half of 2008. Future has increased the proportion of magazine volume sales derived from subscription rather than newsstand, from 20% to 23%. The majority of UK revenues for magazines are derived from cover price.

• In the US 29% of magazines (by volume) are sold at newsstand. The majority are sold by subscription at heavily discounted prices.

• Partnership publishing represented 24% of 2009 Group revenue for the first half of 2009. This category includes business from our Official magazines published for Microsoft (Xbox 360 and Vista), Sony (PlayStation) and Nintendo, plus customer publishing activities. The majority of the Group's revenue is generated from our own brands.

• For each of our websites we know the number of page impressions and we know the number of unique visitors to that website. We do not know how many unique visitors visit more than one of our websites. The number presented here is the simple total of each website's average monthly number of unique visitors.

• Human Capital is the Group's most important resource, with 1,233 employees. In the running of our business, the most important focal point is the publisher responsible for each magazine and website. We focus on retention of key employees to drive our business. Equally, we believe in refreshment of the team with new people and new ideas.

 

END

 

 

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