Daily Mail and General Trust-owned business publisher Euromoney Institutional Investor has reported record profits and revenues and says it is weathering the downturn well.
It reported adjusted operating profit up three per cent to £81.3m on turnover up nine per cent to £332.1m. Adjusted profit before tax was up 21 per cent to £67.3m.
Chairman Padraic Fallon celebrated what he said was ‘a year of achievement in worsening markets, when we broke all previous records”.
He added: ‘Some revenue streams, particularly advertising and sponsorship from the money centre institutions, have begun to turn down as we anticipated, but the robust nature of our subscription revenues, the geographical spread of the company and the continued growth of Metal Bulletin and our legal and telecoms activities are very encouraging. Cash flows run at record levels.’
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The company said that today’s results demonstrated the success of its strategy to build a “high quality, more robust subscription-driven information business”. Subscription revenues were said to be up by 18 per cent to £123.1m.
Euromoney said it had made a successful transition from being a predominantly publishing-driven business to one with significant activities in events, training, electronic information and database services.
In its results report, it said: ‘The demand for quality, hard-to-get information products, particularly those delivered electronically, should remain robust during difficult times.
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‘And while all revenue streams are subject to the impact of volatility in financial markets, the increased proportion of revenues now derived from high margin subscription products and the reduced exposure to traditionally more volatile advertising revenues should provide some protection against the widely expected economic downturn in 2009.”
In Euromoney’s core financial publishing business, revenues were unchanged at £84m with adjusted operating profits of £24.5m. Despite the downturn, Euromoney magazine was said to have had its best September issue ever thanks to its strong emerging markets exposure.
Business publishing also performed well: with revenues up 16 per cent to £53.1m and adjusted operating profits up 29 per cent to £19.4m.
Euromoney said that October’s revenues were ahead of last year and forward revenues for the first quarter are ahead of the same time last year but that sales for last six weeks ‘have shown some signs of weakening in the face of the extreme credit market conditions and continued uncertainty over the economic outlook”.
Euromoney Institutional Investor describes itself as an international business-to-business media group focused primarily on the finance, metals and commodities sectors.
It publishes more than 70 magazines, newsletters and journals, including Euromoney, Institutional Investor and Metal Bulletin.
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