Outgoing SMG Chairman Predicts Positive Year
SMG has performed strongly over the last six months and will continue to see increases in revenue across all of its main media interests over the coming year, according to outgoing chairman Don Cruickshank.
The company’s AGM statement on Friday saw Cruickshank commend SMG’s achievements to date, including growth in its television advertising revenues, both national and regional, which showed increases well ahead of ITV as a whole.
The second half of 2004 also looks promising for the company, which is set to receive a boost from the forthcoming Euro 2004 football championships, which are expected to attract record audiences and advertising revenue.
SMG’s outdoor operations are performing particularly well and are enjoying double digit growth this year following investment in additional panels and a strong market for existing 6-sheets. Cinema and radio operations are also in good shape with further predictions for growth before the year’s end.
Commenting on the state of SMG as a whole, Cruickshank said: “With the financial strength of the company now restored and the prospects of a sustained recovery in advertising now under way, the Group can look forward to a promising future.”
He added: “We are now almost wholly focused on national advertising markets which stand to gain most from the recovery, while the rapid conversion of advertising revenues to profit and cash, plus the prospects for renewal of the financial terms of our television licences at the end of 2004, provides the opportunity for good growth over the coming years.”
Cruickshank’s predictions came shortly before stepping down from his position with SMG to be replaced by Chris Masters, a former oil and manufacturing boss, as the company’s new non-executive chairman. Earlier this year SMG predicted a increase in the speed of advertising recovery but simultaneously published poorer than expected profits for the full year 2003 (see SMG’s Profits Tumble As Advertising Decline Bites).
SMG: 0141 300 3000 www.smg.plc.uk
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