No Payout Again As Cuts Inflate Pmp Earnings
The Age
Friday August 20, 2004
Commercial printer PMP, bogged down in an overhaul of its operations, yesterday announced disappointing annual earnings bolstered by one-off tax gains and cost cuts.
The company posted a 12.7 per cent rise in net profit to $17.5 million for the June 30 year, but the result was struck on a 3.5 per cent fall in sales revenue to $1.2 billion. Operating earnings, which rose 20 per cent to $113.6 million, were eaten away by one-off items worth $38 million, including $20 million of redundancies and $18 million of costs associated with debt refinancing. A breakdown of the results showed several divisions were struggling to survive in an otherwise buoyant publishing and advertising market. Shareholders, who have not been paid a dividend since 2001 because of PMP's large tax losses, missed out again this year. Shares in the company, which have almost doubled over the past year, rose 1 ? to $1.71. Chief executive David Kirk conceded the main contributor to a 39 per cent rise in earnings before interest and tax to $74.7 million was cost savings of about $30 million. However, he said PMP had also achieved some improved margins. He was confident of achieving EBIT of between $47 million and $52 million in the first half of 2004-05, but gave no guidance on the full-year result. The company's largest division, printing and distribution, suffered a 1.5 per cent fall in revenue to $774.1 million, while revenue in its second largest division, magazine distributor Gordon & Gotch, rose only 1.8 per cent to $360 million. However, that rise was not converted into profit.
© 2004 The Age
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