Scot FM Sale Boosts Wireless Group Profits
The £25.5 million sale of Scot FM to the Guardian Media Group (GMG) in June (see Wireless Group Sells Scot FM To Guardian Media For £25.5m) has helped push Wireless Group into profit for the six months ended 30 June 2001. The £22.5 million profit from the disposal nudged pre-tax profit up to £5.0 million; loss for the same period last year was £25.7 million.
Advertising revenues were up 3.7% on a like for like basis, which is a good performance given that the radio industry as a whole saw revenues fall by around -6.4%, according to an average of quarterly figures from ABN Amro, ACNielsen and the Advertising Association.
Kelvin MacKenzie, chairman and chief executive of the Wireless Group said: “Our underlying performance continues to improve. We are outperforming the market in revenue growth and our cost control has resulted in significant reductions in the Group’s losses.”
Operating losses for the interim period were reduced by 62% from £10.1 million to £3.9 million, before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation and digital costs. Turnover rose by 11.6% to £15.4 million.
MacKenzie described the current period as a ‘difficult climate’. Wireless Group’s local radio stations (ILRs) performed particularly well in these conditions, with revenues up by 13.4%, to £9.8 million. On a like for like basis revenue increased by 0.7%, with the local markets producing an increase of 5.7%.
Revenues at national station TalkSport increased from £5.1 million to £5.6 million, up 9.4%, which compares to a fall of 7.2% in national advertising revenue for the industry as a whole, says the company. “In the first quarter we reported growth in revenue for TalkSport of 41% against industry rates of 4.2%. In the second quarter, industry rates fell by 16.9% with TalkSport experiencing a fall of only 12.7%,” said MacKenzie.
Shares in Wireless Group were down 1p at 81½p by mid-morning.
