Tamedia: CHF 15.6 million less sales in print advertising

In the first half of 2018, the Swiss media group virtually matched the previous year's figure of CHF 477.8 million with sales of CHF 477.5 million. However, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) fell significantly by 32.9 percent to CHF 85.4 million (previous year CHF 127.3 million).

Declining print advertising market and value adjustment due to Publicitas

The main drivers of this development are the sharp decline in the print advertising market, the bad debt provision of CHF 5.0 million made as a result of the bankruptcy of the advertising broker Publicitas, and the CHF 27.8 million increase in pension expenses in accounting terms in accordance with IAS 19. Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) fell by 44.6 percent to CHF 52.7 million (previous year CHF 95.2 million). At CHF 45.4 million, normalized earnings after taxes were also below the level of the previous year (CHF 54.5 million). Shareholders' equity decreased by 1.1 million CHF to 1,968.5 million CHF. The equity ratio is a solid 78.3 percent.

Digital growth gives hope

Christoph Tonini, Chief Executive Officer of Tamedia: "Compared to the previous year, our media group took in a good CHF 15 million less in the print advertising market. In addition, we had to accept a value adjustment due to the bankruptcy of Publicitas. These two effects put pressure on the result. However, we made good progress in the development of our digital news offering and in the area of marketplaces and shareholdings. All in all, the offerings from the Marketplaces and Investments business segment and Tamedia's digital journalistic media contributed CHF 187.7 million (previous year: CHF 175.6 million) or 39.3 per cent to total revenues (pro forma). The share of all digital offerings in EBITDA reached CHF 59.9 million (previous year: CHF 63.3 million) or 70.1 per cent, the EBIT share CHF 43.4 million (previous year: CHF 46.8 million) or 82.3 per cent. The lower amounts compared to the previous year are a consequence of the allocation of the pension expense according to IAS 19, which was CHF 27.8 million lower in 2017 than in the current reporting period.