UK pollster YouGov's shares up as recovery plan progresses
29/10/2024 11:37
By Paul Sandle
LONDON, Oct 29 (Reuters) - British polling and research
company YouGov YOU.L said it had identified most of the cost
savings it needed to underpin a recovery in its profit margin
after a warning in May hit its share price hard.
The company, famous for its political predictions, on
Tuesday reported a 21% drop in adjusted profit before tax to 45
million pounds ($58.4 million) for the year to end-July on
revenue up 3% on an underlying basis.
Chief Executive Steve Hatch said it had been "unquestionably
a year when we had to make tough decisions relative to what we
saw and our revenue expectations".
YouGov, which completed the acquisition of European
household purchase data company CPS in January, said in May it
was seeing lower sales bookings than it expected and as a result
downgraded its profit expectations.
The numbers published on Tuesday came in slightly ahead of
the downgraded expectations, and Hatch said the group had taken
initial action on 17 million pounds of cost savings out of a
total 20 million pounds, which included shedding 7% of staff.
"The macroeconomic environment remained challenging across
the wider market research industry and for YouGov, while
internal execution also contributed to the challenges we faced,"
he said.
"We acted quickly over the summer and I am confident that we
have put the right initiatives in place as we focus on the
execution of our long-term strategic plan."
Shares in YouGov, which tumbled 30% after the profit
warning, were trading up 12% in morning deals.
While trading in the current year was broadly in line with
last year, YouGov was continuing to see demand for its custom
research data, Hatch said, and he expected sales booking
momentum to pick up in the second and third quarters.
($1 = 0.7704 pounds)
(Reporting by Paul Sandle; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
((paul.sandle@thomsonreuters.com; +44 20 7542 6843; Reuters
Messaging: paul.sandle.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))