Emap posted a pre-tax profit of £196m for the year ending March 31, up by 12% on 2003, with turnover rising by 9% to £1.05bn, but the company's share price plunged by over 9% when the market opened this morning as investors reacted to the warning that profitability for this year would be "significantly impacted" by competitive pressures in the French TV listings market.
Shares were trading down 79p this morning to 767p, but have continued to lose ground throughout the day and by 1500 were down 89.5p to 756.5p a fall of 10.64%.
Despite the warning, there were many bright spots for Emap. The company said that real life and celebrity magazine Closer, launched in September 2002, was possibly set to overtake its younger celebrity title Heat as Emap's biggest selling weekly magazine in the UK with circulation currently standing at 450,000.
A more recent new launch Zoo, the weekly magazine for adolescent men, was also performing strongly. Emap said that weekly sales were in excess of 150,000 and that it is ahead of plan for both circulation and advertising.
Across the board at Emap's consumer titles, advertising revenue was up by 4% on an underlying basis, rising to 5% when Closer is included in the figures.
Business-to-business magazines saw a rise in display advertising of 10%, while recruitment advertising finished up by 2% for the year. These rises come after a period of decline for the division.
Total radio revenues at Emap, which owns Kiss 100 and Magic 105.4, rose by 8% but, largely owing to investment in digital radio, profits were down by 2%.
Tom Moloney, group chief executive of Emap, said: "The business overall is in good shape. While we will face some major challenges in the year ahead, we're ready for them and we expect to continue delivering growth."
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