Pre Close Trading Update

RNS Number : 1377E

Future PLC

24 September 2008

 



24 September 2008 

FUTURE plc

Pre-Close Trading Update

Future plc, the international special-interest media group, today provides a pre-close trading update ahead of its results for the year ending 30 September 2008.

The Board expects the Group's results for the year to 30 September 2008 to be in line with market expectations.   

While trading conditions remain tough, Future continues to prove resilient, reflecting the Group's focus on areas of special-interest.

Group strategy remains on track, with operational focus on active portfolio management and continued progress in our digital strategy.  

Future has recently confirmed an agreement with Sony to develop a weekly digital magazine across the PlayStation Network in the UK. This follows the development and launch of 'Qore', a monthly 'digital edition', for Sony in North America in June.  

Future will announce its annual results (for the year to 30 September 2008) on Wednesday 26 November 2008.

Enquiries:

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

Hogarth Partnership:
James Longfield / Ian Payne                                      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 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 and MacLife. Online, our websites include gamesradar.com, bikeradar.com, techradar.com, and musicradar.com. Future sells over 4 million magazines each month; we attract more than 14 million unique visitors to our websites; and we host 20 annual live events that attract hundreds of thousands of enthusiasts. Internationally, Future is both the UK's largest licensor and the largest exporter of magazines with our content appearing in 90 countries worldwide.

  Key performance indicators for the six months ended 31 March 2008:

The table below sets out for ease of reference the key performance indicators as published in the Annual Report 2007 and Interim Report 2008.  

Key performance indicators	Six months     To 31 March 2008	Year Ended 30 September 2007
Growth in revenue (normalised at constant currency)	Flat	Flat
EBITAE operating margin (as a %)	8.9%	8.4%
Absolute EBITAE (in Sterling)	£7.0m	£14.0m
Change in adjusted earnings per share (as a %)	Flat	+ 14%
Number of magazines sold per month	4.2m	4.0m
Proportion of magazines sold from total number printed	See notes 1-3	See notes 1-3
Proportion of Group's business derived from our brands compared with partnership publishing	77:23 (note 4)	79:21 (note 4)
Number of unique users logging on to our websites per month	11m (note 5)	10m (note 5)
Growth in total advertising revenue (as a % normalised at constant currency)	+ 4%	+ 3%
Proportion of advertising revenue that is online (as a %)	19%	14%
Human Capital	See note 6	See note 6
Net bank debt	£25.1m	£24.3m

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 80% of magazines (by volume) are sold at newsstand. Our overall UK average newsstand efficiency has improved further in 2008 by 2% compared with the first half of 2007. Future has increased the proportion of magazine volume sales derived from subscription rather than newsstand, from 18% to 20%. The majority of UK revenues for magazines are derived from cover price.

• In the US 27% of magazines (by volume) are sold at newsstand. The majority are sold by subscription at heavily discounted prices, and the majority of magazine revenues are gained from advertising.

• Partnership publishing represented 23% of normalised 2008 Group revenue for the first half of 2008. 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 1,250 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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