ARN the star as APN report heavy losses

Staff Writer

After a disastrous week, APN News and Media have reported a $455.8m full year loss to the market today. However, this loss is heavily driven by impairment charges associated with the publishing assets in Australia and New Zealand.

EBITDA across the consolidated group was down 25% to $156m, and earnings were down 13% to $929m. Publishing remains the challenge for APN, with their Australian radio assets, and outdoor, performing well.

"The structural changes to media, together with the weak advertising markets have impacted the results," new chairman Peter Cosgrove said.

"Work has been done to reposition the business and we are seeing encouraging improvements."

"Revenue declines have moderated in publishing, revenue in all other divisions is ahead of the prior year."

Looking at the radio assets under the APN umbrella, the Australian Radio Network has performed very well. Whilst the overall Australian radio market was down 1%, ARN's revenue was up 5% to $140m, and EBITDA up 7% to $51m. This gives ARN a margin of 36.3%, healthy in any language.

ARN has exceeded market revenue growth for the 19 months prior to January 2013.

Across the Tasman, TRN continues to be underwhelming. The New Zealand radio business is being rebuilt under new CEO, Jane Hastings, who has been in place for only 4 months.

Whilst TRN report that revenue is 10% ahead in 2013 compared to this time last year, the overall figures are still soft.

The New Zealand radio market was flat, and TRN's revenue was down 2% to $87m, with EBITDA down 12% to $15m. The TRN margin is 17%.

 

Read more in the APN ASX report here.

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