REG - Zinc Media Group PLC - Trading Update

Zinc MediaAnnouncement

20/11/2024 07:00

For best results when printing this announcement, please click on link below:
https://newsfile.refinitiv.com/getnewsfile/v1/story?guid=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20241120:nRST8751Ma&default-theme=true

RNS Number : 8751M  Zinc Media Group PLC  20 November 2024

Zinc Media Group plc

 

("Zinc" or the "Group")

 

Trading update and launch of new TV entertainment label

 

 

Zinc Media Group plc (AIM: ZIN), the award-winning television, brand and audio
production group, today announces a trading update for the year ending 31
December 2024 ("FY24"). Furthermore, the Group is pleased to announce the
launch of a major new entertaiment television label headed by the former
Executive Producer of Strictly Come Dancing and The Voice.

 

Trading update

In the last four weeks the Group has made significant changes to its portfolio
structure. It has sold a non-core publishing business, acquired Raw Cut
television group in an all-share acquisition, and is continuing to invest in
future growth by today announcing a new hire which will diversify the Group
into the IP driven and highly lucrative genre of entertainment television.

 

These portfolio changes, along with a large television production opportunity
which has shifted into the new financial year's pipeline means that the Group
is now expecting to report revenues of £34m and Adjusted EBITDA of £1.5m for
the current financial year. Together with portfolio changes, this would
reflect an increase of 50% in Adjusted EBITDA compared to the prior year,
significantly outperforming the wider production market in 2024.

 

The Group's cash generation in the financial year has been excellent, and cash
at 18 November 2024 was £7.8m, compared to £4.2m as reported in the last
trading update on 25 September 2024.

 

Outlook

The outlook for FY25 is strong and the Group is reporting its highest level of
booked and highly advanced revenue at this point in the year looking ahead to
the next financial year. The Group has currently secured £14m of revenue for
FY25 (30 September 2024: £11m) and has a further £8m at a highly advanced
stage (30 September 2024: £5m). Both these metrics are ahead of the same
point last year looking in to FY24. As a result, the Group is confident of
delivering further revenue and Adjusted EBITDA growth in FY25.

 

Like many other sectors which are highly reliant on high levels of personnel
costs, the television and film production sector has been hit hard by the
announced changes to Employers' National Insurance Contributions, which are
expected to increase Zinc's cost base by approximately £0.4m annually. Whilst
mitigations will be possible over time, many productions for the next
finanical year are currently filming, with budgets agreed for FY25.

 

Launch of new entertainment label

The Group's new entertainment label Electric Violet, which expands the Group
outside Factual television for the first time, will be headed by former
Strictly Come Dancing exec Andrea Hamilton, who was also the lead behind
highly successful returning shows such as The Voice, So You Think You Can
Dance! and Little Mix: The Search, all for the BBC. While formats in this
genre may take considerable time to develop, the large scale, high octane
series of this type can attract commissioning budgets in excess of £10m and
the IP can sell globally. Investors can see more about this new label here
https://electricviolet.tv (https://electricviolet.tv)

 

This new venture continues the proven and successful strategy of hiring highly
respected creative business winners who bring with them their own pipeline of
business. The Group supports these hires with its proprietary platform
allowing for accelerate growth.

 

Mark Browning, Chief Executive Officer, Zinc Media Group, says:

 

"Zinc's performance is now one of consistent year on year EBITDA growth driven
by excellent business fundementals including high levels of returning
business, excellent gross margins and good revenue visibility. By any test
this is a market leading performance.

 

While delivering consistent year on year growth we also continue to invest in
long term profit growth.  The launch of Electric Violet diversifies us
further with a move in to entertainment television where the size of
commissions and IP can be transformational.

 

Our proprietary platform supports all our businesses helping to drive margin
and operational excellence, and following our recent disposal, acquisition and
new label launch, we end this year more cohesive and more profitable, and with
more opportunity before us than in any of my previous years leading this
Group".

 

 

 

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of the UK
Market Abuse Regulation.

 

 

For further information, please contact:

 Zinc Media Group plc                                   +44 (0) 20 7878 2311

 Mark Browning, CEO / Will Sawyer, CFO

 www.zincmedia.com (http://www.zincmedia.com)

 Singer Capital Markets (Nominated Adviser and Broker)  +44 (0) 20 7496 3000

 James Moat / Sam Butcher

 MHP                                                    +44 (0) 7817 458804

 Oliver Hughes / Eleni Menikou / Ollie Hoare

 

About Zinc Media Group

Zinc Media Group plc is a premium television and content creation group.

The award-winning and critically acclaimed television labels comprise Atomic,
Brook Lapping, Electric Violet, Raw Cut, Rex, Red Sauce, Supercollider, Tern
Television, along with Bumblebee Post-Production, and produce programmes
across a wide range of factual genres for UK and international broadcasters.

Zinc Media Group's commercial content creation unit includes The Edge Picture
Company, one of the UK's largest brand film-making companies, and Zinc Audio,
specialising in podcasts and radio production.

For further information on Zinc Media, please visit www.zincmedia.com
(http://www.zincmedia.com)

 

This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact
rns@lseg.com (mailto:rns@lseg.com)
 or visit
www.rns.com (http://www.rns.com/)
.

RNS may use your IP address to confirm compliance with the terms and conditions, to analyse how you engage with the information contained in this communication, and to share such analysis on an anonymised basis with others as part of our commercial services. For further information about how RNS and the London Stock Exchange use the personal data you provide us, please see our
Privacy Policy (https://www.lseg.com/privacy-and-cookie-policy)
.   END  TSTFFFFLLRLALIS