REG - Centaur Media PLC - Trading Update

Centaur MediaAnnouncement

10/10/2024 07:00

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RNS Number : 6181H  Centaur Media PLC  10 October 2024

Centaur Media plc

Incorporated in England and Wales

Registration number: 04948078

LEI: 2138005WK87G7DQRQI62

ISIN: GB0034291418

 

10 October 2024

Centaur Media Plc

("Centaur" or "the Company")

 

Trading Update

 

Centaur, an international provider of business intelligence, learning and
specialist consultancy, provides a trading update.

 

As highlighted in the interim results in July, the marketing sector headwinds
caused by macro-economic challenges have continued to drive restructurings in
the marketing functions of many blue-chip customers of Xeim. This has led to
the curtailment of marketing budgets and, although we have retained most of
these customers, their spend has reduced. The prolonged impact of these
challenges is materially reducing revenue and profit during the second half of
2024.

 

These headwinds are having a significant impact on Xeim's Econsultancy and
Oystercatchers brands, and Xeim's non-strategic advertising revenue. More
positively, revenue from our future growth drivers, The Lawyer, MW Mini MBA,
Festival of Marketing's October event and Marketing Week's subscriptions, has
continued to improve in the second half.

 

EBITDA in 2024 will decline as a result of the impact of the high operational
gearing on Xeim's lower revenue and a change in revenue mix. EBITDA will also
be lower than last year due to the 2024 planned £1.3m investment in product,
marketing and resources set out in our BIG27 strategy. This will accelerate
the growth of our strategically valuable revenue over the next three years, in
particular from The Lawyer, MW Mini MBA and Marketing Week's subscriptions.

 

The Board now expects the Company to achieve revenue of at least £34m in
2024, at an adjusted EBITDA margin of approximately 15%, which is
significantly below the current analyst consensus range. This revised
expectation will also impact our revenue and profit expectations in 2025.

 

Outlook

We continue to review our go-to-market plans and maintain a focus on robust
cost management. We retain a cautious outlook and do not anticipate that
trading conditions for the affected parts of our business will improve in the
near term.

 

Nonetheless, Centaur's strong balance sheet, with £9.5m of net cash at 30
September 2024, and reliable cash conversion from our strategically valuable
revenue streams, means that we are well positioned to manage this uncertainty.
We will also continue to invest behind our strategy, as this will generate
long-term value, while maintaining our progressive dividend policy which, as
previously announced, is paying an interim ordinary dividend of 0.6 pence per
share later this month.

 

Enquiries

Centaur Media plc
                                        020 7970 4000

Swag Mukerji, Chief Executive Officer

Simon Longfield, Chief Financial Officer

   Teneo
   Zoë Watt / Oliver Bell    07713 157561 / 07917 221748

 

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