Maiden said that last year's slow but steady recovery in sales since the low of January 2002 continued until December where, despite double the growth of the previous year, the rate of recovery slowed significantly. It said the performance in the autumn months of 2002 had been much stronger.
As a result of December's poor performance, turnover for the year will only increase by in the low single digits and will not hit levels the group had originally hoped for when it announced its interim results in September.
The December shortfall notwithstanding, Maiden says it is confident that profit before tax and the amortisation of goodwill for the year ended December 31 2002 will be at least 拢6.3m.
Maiden said the start of 2003 was off to a good start with sales in January 50% ahead of last time, which was a poor month. Sales to date for February, it says, have already exceed those achieved for the whole of February 2002, by 23%. Maiden has already booked 10% more revenue for the first quarter of 2003 than the whole of the first quarter of 2002.
The group said it was too early to extrapolate the company's first quarter into a full-year trend as advertising lead times remain short and general advertiser demand is still inconsistent.
Maiden also warned that the prospect of a new war in Iraq could undermine any short-term signs of recovery in the UK media sector. It said a clearer picture for the year will emerge at Maiden's preliminary results at the end of March.
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