Trinity Mirror 2015 results better than expected, dividend lifted

For the 52 weeks ended 27 December, revenue fell to £592.7m from £636.3m in 2014, while statutory pre-tax profit slid to £67.2m from £81.6m.

In adjusted terms, however, pre-tax profit rose to £107.5m from £102.3m.

Meanwhile, operating profit dropped 16.6% to £82.2m.

Despite the declines, the results were ahead of expectations. House broker Numis had been expecting revenue of £586.3m, operating profit of £106m and adjusted pre-tax profit of £104m.

The company lifted its dividend for the year to 5.15p from 3p in 2014, which was also ahead of Numis’ estimate of 5p.

Chief executive Simon Fox said: "I am pleased with the profit growth we delivered in 2015 despite the challenging print environment.

“Our significant efforts on improving our balance sheet over the past three years enabled the transformational acquisition of Local World. We are delighted to welcome the Local World team to Trinity Mirror and are making good progress with the integration of the two companies and finding opportunities to benefit from best practice.

“Whilst we expect print markets to remain difficult in 2016, the continued implementation of our strategy gives the board confidence in our performance for the year ahead.”

Trinity Mirror bought Local World back in November for £183m. It said on Monday that Local World revenue and adjusted operating profit for 2015 came in at £208.2m and £41.4m, respectively.

Numis said this was “a very strong" set of results and the brokerage upped its pre-tax profit and EPS estimates for 2016 to £130.4m and 36.7p from £124.9m and 36.1p.

At 1058 GMT, Trinity Mirror shares were up 4.2% to 159.12p.