Maiden’s Outdoor View Is Good

Outdoor advertising contractor Maiden says that it has started the year well, thanks to a growing move by advertisers toward the outdoor medium and the benefits of earlier investment.

Maiden says that despite a nervous advertising environment, bookings for the first quarter are up 22% on last year and first half bookings have already reached 93% of 2000’s first half – itself a record figure.

Pre-tax profits before amortisation more than doubled from £5.1 million to £13.0 million and sales rose by 21% to £86.1 million. The group says that all three key estate areas – large format posters, point of sale sites and rail network concessions – performed well during the year.

Perhaps most notable though is chief executive Ron Zeghibe’s positive outlook for 2001 at a time of the dotcom slump and advertising downturn. “The current year has started strongly with bookings well ahead of this time last year. Even with growing uncertainty in the economy and a potential reduction in growth in advertising spend, we continue to expect to be able to outperform the cycle.

“We have leading and valuable positions in key areas of the outdoor market and we expect to see good returns from them. Our target is to produce double digit annual revenue growth in any medium-term timeframe,” he said today.

By early afternoon today stock was up 5p at 530p.

Maiden Group: 020 7838 4000