UTV announces results

UTV has reported H108 results this morning, announcing operating profit of £14.5m (€18.254m) and adjusted earnings per share 13.7c.

Revenue was at £62m (€78m), up 8.5% year-on-year.

The interim dividend for the first half was set at 3.3p. Radio now accounts 61% of operating profit compared to 33% from TV.

The drivers of growth in radio were UTV’s national radio franchise in the UK, talkSPORT (+18% YoY), and Radio Ireland (+24% on like-for-like basis, and +9% on a local currency l-f-l basis).

Against that, sales and operating profit from TV declined 4% and 15% respectively, while New Media increased operating profit by 51% annually and revenue by 15%.

The outlook statement stresses the ability of UTV to outperform, though acknowledges the impact on advertising of economic weakness.

Advertising growth for Q3 is guided at ‘flat’ for GB Radio, +1% on a l-f-l local currency basis for Irish radio, -5% for TV and +15% for New Media.

That leads us to reduce our FY08 revenue and PBT forecasts by 3% and 5% to £126.9m (€159.7m) and £19m (€23.9m) respectively, though our adj. EPS increases by 3% to 22p purely on the basis of a lower average share count for the year.