Seven West Media reports $150 million half year profit
SEVEN West Media is back in the black after reporting a $150 million profit in its half-year results. The media company is in turnaround mode.
TELEVISION, magazine and newspaper company Seven West Media is back in the black after posting a $150 million half year profit.
The media company on Tuesday said it had made a $150 million for the six months to December 28, a turnaround from its $109 million loss for the same period the previous year.
However, its $966.3 million revenue for the half year was down 1.2 per cent on the $977.9 million in the previous year.
Chief executive Tim Worner said it was a strong result in mixed market conditions.
“We are delivering leadership in broadcast television and our publishing businesses continue to demonstrate market-leading margins and performance,” he said.
The company said the loss of $109.3 million in the previous corresponding half was partly due to redundancy and restructuring costs.
Mr Worner said the company now had a new management structure in place and believed it was in a strong position to build on its success.
“We continue to invest in our content and our businesses to drive home leadership, while maintaining our rigorous approach on cost management,” he said.
“We are developing greater interconnections between our media businesses as we expand our presence in new forms of digital content delivery.”
Seven West expects low single digit growth for its full year net profit.
Mr Worner said the television advertising market had returned to growth during the half and the company was confident that the outlook would remain positive for the remainder of the year. Seven West has upgraded its 2014 financial year television advertising market outlook to low to mid single digit growth from low single digit growth.
It expects the newspaper advertising market to continue its current rate of decline but magazine advertising to fall at a slower pace.
The company declared a fully franked interim dividend of six cents, the same as last year.
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