IPMG Printing has hit back at “misleading” reports about its parent company’s financial results, as the printer completes a $60 million equipment spend.

In an interview with ProPrint, IPMG Printing chief executive Steven Anstice was critical of reports which focused on a $77m loss IPMG Holdings sustained over the 2009 financial year.

The figure is based on statutory accounts lodged with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), though Anstice was keen to emphasise that it doesn’t tell the whole story.

In a letter to ProPrint, Anstice wrote:

“Whilst the headline ‘loss’ number in the accounts is significant it is important to note the following:

• Although significantly affected by the economic slow down associated with the Global Financial Crisis, IPMG has traded to expectation during the year.
• There was positive net cash generated from operating activities during the year.
• IPMG has an exceptionally strong balance sheet with a large net asset position and extremely low gearing.
• The trading performance November year-to-date FY10 is in line with budgets.

“Whilst the reported results for the 2009 financial year were a disappointment, the shareholders are comfortable with the underlying strength of the IPMG businesses, and are confident that the group is well placed to take advantage of the opportunities that will present themselves over the foreseeable future,” the letter concluded.

Some of those opportunities, according to the company, lie in what it sees as a growing retail catalogue market.

“It certainly has grown,” Anstice told ProPrint. “There have been a lot of other markets in decline over the last year, that’s one of the stronger markets we’re in.”

The company recently completed a $60m kit investment which has seen the deployment of a 48-page Goss Sunday 4000 web press at Offset Alpine Printing, a Ferag UniDrum at both Offset Alpine and Hannanprint Victoria, and a 16-page web press at Inprint in Brisbane.

Anstice would not be drawn on the company’s plans for a $150 million gravure printing plant in the Sydney suburb of Warwick Farm, though IPMG managing director Michael Hannan told The Australian earlier this week that the company is pushing ahead with the plans.

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