Throughout the mixture of HY and FY results posted to the ASX, the underlying theme in print was an industry moving in the right direction, with increases in profit for some companies, and decreased losses for others.
Almost none saw a performance that was poorer than the previous reporting period.
IVE Group (IVE) delivered a strong uplift across revenue, EBITDA and NPATA, while delivering what it called an attractive dividend for shareholders.
Revenue is up 4.5 per cent, reaching $375.6m, while pro forma EBITDA is up 13.3 per cent to $43.4 million.
The company’s pro forma NPATA rose up 7.9 per cent to reach $20.8m.
Geoff Selig, executive chairman, IVE, says, “In October 2018 we concluded the most significant investment program the sector has seen for many years, a huge vote of confidence in the sector itself, and in our capacity as a business to execute major initiatives successfully.
“Our FY19 half year results clearly demonstrate the benefits from this investment program are flowing through with operational efficiencies, margin expansion, and the resulting uplift in earnings.”
Warwick Hay, managing director, IVE, says, “With the heavy lifting of our recent investment and integrations phase now behind us, we continue to be focused on delivering exceptional service to our customers to underpin revenue retention and growth. The positive momentum that resulted in a strong H1 performance has continued into H2, giving us the confidence of delivering solid earnings growth for the full year.”
Over at Ovato, the newly rebranded PMP/IPMG, consolidation continues, with the incoming 80pp manroland Goss Lithoman set to retire up to six older presses, along with its Moorebank, Sydney site. The workers for the older presses are set for redundancy, though the exact number has not been confirmed, with the company only citing a total saving a $24m.
The printing division of the new company, Ovato Print Group Australia, saw HY revenue down by 12.9 per cent from the prior corresponding period (pcp), falling to $213m, offset by a more positive EBITDA margin, reaching 6.2 per cent from a pcp result of 3.9 per cent.
As a whole, the company had a HY loss of $10.9m, an improvement from a less than stellar pcp result, which saw it lose the Coles catalogue, finishing $19.6m in the red.
Importantly, the results are tracking in the right direction for Ovato, which also increased its cash spend from the $20m in August 2018 to $50m for FY19-21 to cover redundancies, site works, make good and press relocations.
Within Wellcom, statutory revenue for the HY is up by five per cent, reaching $79.95m from $75.87m in the pcp, with profit after tax improving by double digits, an 11 per cent boost to $6.6m from $5.96m. EBITDA is also up by 10 per cent, reaching $11.45m from $10.37m.
Wayne Sidwell, chairman, Wellcom Group, says, “In the past six months we have on-boarded significant new business. We have also completed the acquisition of marketing resource management technology Brandsystems, further strengthening the Group’s technology offering.”
Online artist marketplace Redbubble continued to grow, with revenue increasing from $122m to $170.6m in the HY, though an increase in operating expenses as the company scales up resulted in another loss, modestly improving from -$2.3m to -$2.19m. The investment can be seen clearly in the value of its net assets, which increased from $26.3m to $85.1m in the past year.
This includes the acquisition of competitor TeePublic, which it purchased in late 2018.
Redbubble says, “The Group has been leading global marketplaces for independent artists for twelve years, and is still in the early days of achieving the potential of its scalable platform in a retail commerce market opportunity worth over $250bn. The Group offers personalised, creative adventures and delightful service for a range of quality products, in contrast to the sea of bland, undifferentiated product options available today.”
For oOh!media, double digit organic revenue growth was achieved following the completion of its merger with Adshel; the final figure for the FY came to $482.6m, up 27 per cent from 2017. From the $482.6m, a majority $288.1m came from digital, the second FY result for the company to do so, following the previous result of $228.1m, 60 per cent of total revenue. Gross profit also improved, by 29 per cent, reaching $225.7m, a gross profit margin of 46.8 per cent, from 46.2 per cent in the pcp.
The 2018 divide between digital/static was slightly under 60/40 per cent, with the success of printing arm Cactus Imaging seen clearly to improve the share of print within revenue. While overall static inventory may not be increasing, the material is being updated on faster turnarounds, now every two weeks instead of monthly, moving towards weekly.
JCDecaux, the new owners of formerly-ASX-listed APN Outdoor, do not have mandatory reporting in Australia, however its global investor report notes double digit growth for the Asia Pacific region, reaching €957m from €818m in the FY, attributing it to new contracts in Australia.
WPP AUNZ had the least impressive results of the swathe of ASX-listed printers, with key metrics across sales, earnings, profit, and revenue falling. Net sales are down 1.4 per cent from the FY 2017 result, sitting at $857.3m from $869.9m, while EBIT had a double digit drop from $138.7m to $121m, shedding 12.8 per cent. Profit before tax fell 13.7 per cent to $107.9m from $125m in the pcp.
Print revenue for WPP AUNZ fell by 9.6 per cent from the previous year, with the company predicting falls of 8.5 per cent and 6.7 per cent over 2019 and 2020 respectively.
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