VNU, the multinational publisher and information company has bucked the trend of disappointing media financial results and announced a robust growth in profits for the first half of 2002.
Net income increased from â‚Ź75.5 million to â‚Ź93 million in the space of a year and VNU was able to reduce its debt from â‚Ź4.2 billion at the end of 2001 to its current level of â‚Ź3.9 billion.
Although first half revenue dropped 10% to â‚Ź2.16 billion from â‚Ź2.39 billion last year, the fall was less than forecasted by analysts and cash earnings, which do not take into account the amortization of goodwill and extraordinary items, were up 5% to E201 million.
The marketing division, which accounted for 46% of revenues, has been boosted by the acquisition of ACNielsen and revenues from the directory business increased by 3% following the purchase of the Irish Golden Pages operation.
“The results were better than expected and demonstrate our enhanced ability to deliver improved results even in difficult economic conditions,” said Rob van den Bergh, Chairman of the Executive Board at VNU.
