Could it be that the recession hasn’t yet caught up with some B2B publishers? United Business Media (LSE: UBM) today announced improved revenue and profits for the year to 31 December 2008, a dividend 10 percent higher and “satisfactory and resilient trading” for November, December and January. That’s in stark contrast to fellow B2B publishers Centaur, which is laying off 15 percent of its staff after announcing poor H208 results, Incisive Media, which breached one if its banking covenants, or Emap Inform, which imposed a company-wide pay freeze.
UBM made revenues of £887 million, a 10.7 percent rise on 2007, and increased its 2008 dividend 10 percent to 23.8 pence per share. Operating profit fell to £107.6 million last year, down from £126.1 million in 2007. More after the jump…
— Online growth, print decline: There was good growth in UBM’s online and data service revenues, which contributed 25.4 percent of revenues, but a shrinkage in print revenue. The company’s online data-services generated 17.9 percent of 2008 profits compared to 15.2 percent in 2007. UBM says it isn’t worried about the print-mag decline and boasts that 60 percent of revenues come from events, data and online services. In 2004, 56.2 percent of UBM revenues came from print; that figure now is just 24.3 percent. The company expects that print will account for 10 percent or less of overall revenues by the end of 2009, compared to 10.3 percent in 2008
— Early cost cuts: While B2B peers and newspapers step up their redundancy programmes, UBM is beginning to see the benefits of cutting 500 staff in H208 and 1,000 since June 2007.
— PR Newswire: At least 350 people were let go at PR Newswire in the U.S. last year, due to the “consolidation of editorial bureaux.” That caused UBM to lose customers and market share, but the company says that by Q308, its market share had “stabilised” — though the division’s headline revenues still grew 9.4 percent last year.
— Events: UBM’s event bookings were up nine percent year on year and accounted for 47.3 percent of operating profits in 2008 compared to 40.3 percent in 2007. Bookings for UBM’s 2009 events, worth £120 million, are up five percent on last year.
— Outlook: It’s been restructuring for the last four years, but UB says it is still “prepared to address rapidly and effectively any deterioration in performance or market conditions”.
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