Highbury Magazines May Raise Only £5 Million

Highbury House Communications is expected not to receive more than £5 million for the sale of its magazines, according to sources close to the publisher.

A report in this mornings Times claims that the proceeds of the sale of the titles would only pay back a small portion of the £30 million debt that crippled the company throughout 2005.

Yesterday, Highbury announced that it had been put up for sale, warning shareholders that there would be effectively nothing left of the company after the magazines were sold.

Kelvin Mackenzie resigned last month from his position as chairman, saying a “mountain of debt” had defeated him. His departure from the company followed long-running restructuring talks earlier in the year, and the sale of 38 magazine titles to rival publisher, Future, for a cash consideration of £30.5 million.

In its latest trading statement Highbury revealed that revenues for the first half of 2005 were down by 28% year on year to £39.6 million, resulting in an operating loss of £2 million.

Total operating losses were shown to be £11 million, compared to £22.9 million last year, with revenues for continuing operations down by 8.2% to £14.5 million, resulting in an operating loss of £0.8 million.

Highbury House Communications: www.hhc.co.uk