Financial Highlights
– Revenue at £17.7 million (2009: £25.3 million)
– EBITDA at £1.9 million (2009: £3.8 million) *
– EBITDA from retained business at £2.0 million (2009: £2.5 million) **
– Operating loss at £0.3 million (2009: operating profit £0.6 million)
– Normalised profit for the year of £1.7 million (2009: £1.4 million) ***
– Net cash of £1.3m at 31 December 2010 (2009: net debt of £6.6m)
Operating Highlights
– Strong organic growth in Digital products – now 27% of Group revenue
– Successful launch of Dods People
– Successful disposal of Education Division in March 2010
| Summary of Results | 2010 | 2009 |
| £’000 | £’000 | |
| Revenue | 17,659 | 25,286 |
| Revenue from retained business** | 16,110 | 17,335 |
| EBITDA* | 1,922 | 3,768 |
| EBITDA from retained business** | 2,010 | 2,545 |
| Loss for the year | (1,317) | (7,785) |
| Normalised profit*** | 1,702 | 1,418 |
| EPS on continuing operations (basic) | 0.03p | (0.03)p |
* EBITDA is calculated as earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation of intangible assets acquired through business combinations, share based payments and non-trading items.
** Retained business is excluding the sold Education Division.
*** Normalised profit is stated before amortisation of intangible assets acquired through business combinations, share based payments, discontinued operations and non-trading items and related tax.
The Group believes that these measures provide additional guidance to the statutory measures of performance of the business. These measures are not defined under adopted IFRS and therefore may not be directly comparable with other companies’ adjusted profit measures.
Non-trading items are items which, in management’s judgment, need to be disclosed by virtue of size, incidence or nature. Such items are included within the income statement caption to which they relate and are separately disclosed either in the notes to the consolidated financial statements or on the face of the consolidated income statement.
An analyst presentation will be held at 9.30am today at the offices of Brewin Dolphin, 12 Smithfield Street, London EC1A 9BD, with coffee available from 9.00am.
Kevin Hand, Non-Executive Chairman of Dods, commented:
“Dods (Group) PLC has been successfully transformed into a highly focused political communications business – with the Dods brand being synonymous with the values of the Group; political impartiality, professional integrity, accuracy and transparency.
2010 has been a mixed year. There has been strong growth in our digital subscriptions business – high value, high margin products – and increased activity following the UK General Election and the increase in new policy being generated by the Coalition Government. At the same time, the Public Sector cuts have resulted in reduced activity within our Government-facing portfolios, with our political training businesses being particularly badly hit.
The strength of the Dods businesses is in the modern media mix of our revenues:
– 63% of Group revenue derives from Digital or Face-to-Face products
– 58% of Group revenue derives from “paid for” products
– Digital subscription revenue increased by 14% in 2010.
This sustainable and robust revenue profile, together with the opportunities created by the outsourcing of Civil Service functions as part of the “Big Society” policy provides significant growth prospects for the future.
The Board continues to be focused on maximising shareholder value – and recognises that this will be achieved by a combination of strong organic growth and, at the appropriate time, acquisitions within our core markets.”
For further information, please contact:
Dods
Kevin Hand, Non-Executive Chairman 020 7593 5500
Gerry Murray, Chief Executive Officer
Rupert Levy, Finance Director
Brewin Dolphin Limited (NOMAD)
Sandy Fraser 0131 225 2566
Note to editors:
Dods (Group) PLC is a public limited company listed on the Alternative Investment
Market (ticker DODS.L)