GWR shares fall almost 10% on gloomy outlook

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November 19, 2002

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GWR shares fall almost 10% on gloomy outlook

LONDON - Shares in GWR Group continued to fall this morning, dropping almost 10% as the City took in the Classic FM owner's gloomy outlook on the radio advertising market.

GWR shares fell steadily this morning and were down 9.9%, or 16.5p, to 149.5p at 11.15am.

This morning, GWR chairman Ralph Bernard warned that there would be no let up in the current advertising downturn in the near future as the radio group reported first-half profits before tax and exceptional items down 20% to £2.2m on flat revenue of £62.3m.

"Our business planning assumption is that there will be no significant upturn in advertising in the foreseeable future," Bernard said.

GWR also this morning denied that it was in takeover talks with US radio giant Clear Channel Communications, which was linked at the weekend to a possible takeover of Capital Radio.

GWR owns around 30 local UK stations and earlier this year sold its 25% stake in DMG Radio Australia and its 49% stake in London News Radio, operator of ITN News Direct station and the LBC AM station. This helped it cut its debt by £66m to under £100m.

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