Leap in profits sees Trinity Mirror shares jump

By MARTIN FLANAGAN
Published on 03/08/2012 00:07

SHARES in Trinity Mirror shot up 19 per cent yesterday after the media group posted an equivalent rise in interim profits and forecast that falling newsprint prices should lead it to exceed City expectations for the full year.

Trinity, publisher of the Daily Mirror, Daily Record and Sunday Mail and a string of regional titles, said £20 million of cost cuts more than offset a 4 per cent fall in revenues to £356m in the six months to 1 July. It said advertising fell 10 per cent.

Underlying pre-tax profits came in at just over £48m, up from £40.5m a year earlier. Trinity – being temporarily run by finance director Vijay Vaghela after chief executive Sly Bailey stepped down amid shareholder unrest on pay and performance – has integrated its Scottish operations into a new subsidiary called Media Scotland as part of a restructuring.

The group said the launch by News International of the Sun on Sunday in February to replace the News of the World, after the latter’s closure amid the phone-hacking scandal, had contributed to a decline in circulation revenues in its second quarter.

Circulation volumes at the Daily Record fell 9.6 per cent in the period, and were down 8.2 per cent at the Sunday Mail. There was a 6.9 per cent decline at the Daily Mirror, but an increase of 17.8 per cent at the Sunday Mirror.

Singer Capital Markets forecasts Trinity’s pre-tax profits could top £100m this year, up from £92.6m in 2011.

The company’s shares closed up 6p at 37p.