Vitesse Media swings to loss, names new FD

Vitesse Media said on Thursday that it swung to a pre-tax loss in the first half, as it announced the appointment of Edward Riddell as group finance director with immediate effect.

The AIM-listed digital media and events business made a pre-tax loss of £213,000 in the six months to the end of September versus a gain of £3,000 the year before as total revenues dipped to £1m from £1.1m.

Revenue in the events business was up 47.2% but this was offset by a 41% drop in media revenue, due to a combination of difficult market conditions for display advertising and a predominantly new sales team starting during the last half year.

Vitesse said that as stated in the chairman's statement, the company has decided it’s best to begin moving away from the declining display advertising market towards more long-term visible revenue streams that better utilise its content creation and “strong industry insight”.

Also on Thursday, the group said current head of finance Edward Riddell has been appointed as group FD with immediate effect.

Riddell joined Vitesse in September 2016. Previously, he was finance manager for five years at fintech start-up CorporatePay Limited and subsequently WEX Europe following WEX Inc's acquisition of CorporatePay in mid-2012, with responsibility for all finance-related activities and reporting.

At 1315 BST, the shares were up 4% to 2.60p.