Sharewatch: Emap Sees Share Price Climb Higher

Radio and magazine giant Emap saw a rise yesterday, with share price rising by a respectable 1.65% to 801p. Yesterday also saw the company appoint Adrian Serle as the new managing director of its regional Kerrang! radio station in Birmingham.

The role will see serle charged with increasing the radio station’s revenue as Emap seeks to build its FM operations across the country. The new MD makes the move to Birmingham from Emap radio stablemates, Hallam FM and Magic AM in Sheffield, where he has achieved record revenue growth as sales director (see Kerrang! Appoints New Managing Director For Midlands).

Elsewhere, ITV saw a dip of 1.78% to 110źp ahead of news this morning that the broadcaster has agreed to sell 15.5 million shares in Thomson SA. The sale represents ITV’s entire stake in Thomson, with a book value of £162 million. The proceeds from the sale will be used to reduce ITV’s debt.

ITV franchise Ulster TV continued to see a rise, climbing by 0.82% to 429˝p yesterday following impressive results published on Monday. The broadcaster has seen an increase of 29% in group profit for the six months to June 2004, as well as predicting a continued increase for the rest of the year (see Impressive Profit Growth For Ulster Television).

The FTSE 100 performed well yesterday, closing above 4,600 for the first time since July 2002 at 4,608.4 following a rise of 0.6%. The FTSE 250 suffered a minor slip, losing less than 0.1% to close at 6,276.5.

The closing prices of media company shares on Tuesday were: