In top shape for the stock market launch
TA-Media achieves best result in history and aims to top Swiss media houses
TA-Media achieves best result in history and aims for top position among Swiss media housesBy Daniel SchifferleOn the eve of its planned IPO, the TA-Media Group has achieved a historic record result: The publishing house on Zurich's Werdstrasse increased profits by 29 percent to CHF 130.4 million in 1999, while sales improved by 13 percent to CHF 769.7 million. The high investments in TV 3 and Winner Market have already been deducted.
"We are a healthy company" was the most frequently heard phrase at the presentation of TA-Media AG's 1999 business development. Indeed, since the low of 1996, when the company had been "cold-showered," things had only been going up at the Zurich publishing house, and with giant strides. As early as 1998, TA-Media was able to report "the best result in the company's 107-year history".
Now, the then record result has again been clearly exceeded. In 1999, profit rose by 29.5 million to 130.4 million Swiss francs, which corresponds to a return on sales of an excellent 17 percent. Sales climbed by 90.7 million to 769.7 million Swiss francs. And this despite immense start-up costs for TV 3 or Winner Market, for example. Contrary to general practice, these expenses were charged directly to the current account.
According to TA-Media's head of finance Patrick Eberle, the record result on the eve of the planned IPO is rooted in the "outstanding development of publishing revenues. This improved by twelve percent to CHF 649 million in 1999, with the increase in advertising revenues by 14.5 percent to CHF 477.6 million being the reason for the top result.
Annabelle and Swiss family satisfactory
The younger titles in particular benefited. According to Eberle, the biggest absolute sales growth was achieved by the Sonntags-Zeitung. It increased by 12 percent or 8.9 million Swiss francs. It was followed by Facts, which generated CHF 6.2 million or 16 percent more than in 1998.
But titles such as the women's magazine Annabelle and Schweizer Familie, both of which lost quite a massive amount of circulation in 1999, also performed satisfactorily overall. In absolute terms, Annabelle generated additional revenues of CHF 5.2 million, or 19 percent.
And even the Swiss Family, despite a marked circulation loss of ten percent, only recorded a one percent drop in sales. The reason: the twelve percent growth in advertising space sold almost made up for the steep losses from subscriptions and single-unit sales. ZürichExpress was also one of last year's winners with an increase in revenue of 5.2 million Swiss francs or 13 percent.
Such good news does not apply to two titles: The flagship Tages-Anzeiger fell short of the previous year's result by 1.1 million Swiss francs, a loss of not quite one percentage point. And for Du, which was also in decline in terms of circulation, revenues deteriorated by 0.4 million Swiss francs.
Share capital to be increased to 100 million
But such small bumps cannot cloud the view of the future. The signs are good. Eberle: "In the first quarter of 2000, we were already able to exceed the record result of the previous year by about one million francs." Whether this will continue until the end of the year, however, is questionable. According to Michel M. Favre, Chairman of the TA Media Management Board, 2000 will be a "year of investment". Around 130 million will go into expanding the core competence of content providing, 30 million of which will go into TV 3 and 20 million into Winner Market. Favre: "It won't be quite so easy to maintain the top result of 1999."
Nevertheless, in the run-up to the decided IPO next fall - the first ever by a Swiss publishing house - TA-Media AG presents itself in historic top form. According to the will of the now widely ramified Coninx family of owners, a total of 33 percent of the share capital is to be made available to the public, 23 percent from a date not yet more precisely determined in the fall of this year and a further 10 percent in 2001. Details of the going public have also not yet been determined.
According to Hans Heinrich Coninx, Chairman of the Board of TA-Media, the resulting inflow of funds will be used to "pay off those family shareholders who want to make other commitments. On the other hand, the window to the capital market should enable us "to take advantage of opportunities at any time that support our path to the top of the Swiss publishing houses," says Coninx.
TA-Media in figures(monetary values in CHF million)
1999 1998 1997 1996
Sales 769.7 (+13%) 679.0 (+14%) 595.6 (+3%) 578.1
Cash flow from
Business activity 200.0 (+40%) 142.7 (+27%) 112.1 (+84%) 61.1
(cash flow)
Net profit 130.4 (+29%) 100.9 (+119%) 46.0 (+268%) 12.5
Headcount 1755 (+1.3%) 1732 (+0.3%) 1727 (-3.4%) 1787
TA-Media titles: Development CirculationTitles 1998 1999 +/- in%
Tages-Anzeiger 281 792 279 912 -0.7
Sunday newspaper 218 518 220 102 +0.7
Facts 104 462 104 598 +0.1
Annabelle 107,969 101,773 -5.8
Swiss family 172 625 155 324 -10
You 25 499 25 179 -1.3
Spick not begl. 54 687 ---
"We are a healthy company" was the most frequently heard phrase at the presentation of TA-Media AG's 1999 business development. Indeed, since the low of 1996, when the company had been "cold-showered," things had only been going up at the Zurich publishing house, and with giant strides. As early as 1998, TA-Media was able to report "the best result in the company's 107-year history".
Now, the then record result has again been clearly exceeded. In 1999, profit rose by 29.5 million to 130.4 million Swiss francs, which corresponds to a return on sales of an excellent 17 percent. Sales climbed by 90.7 million to 769.7 million Swiss francs. And this despite immense start-up costs for TV 3 or Winner Market, for example. Contrary to general practice, these expenses were charged directly to the current account.
According to TA-Media's head of finance Patrick Eberle, the record result on the eve of the planned IPO is rooted in the "outstanding development of publishing revenues. This improved by twelve percent to CHF 649 million in 1999, with the increase in advertising revenues by 14.5 percent to CHF 477.6 million being the reason for the top result.
Annabelle and Swiss family satisfactory
The younger titles in particular benefited. According to Eberle, the biggest absolute sales growth was achieved by the Sonntags-Zeitung. It increased by 12 percent or 8.9 million Swiss francs. It was followed by Facts, which generated CHF 6.2 million or 16 percent more than in 1998.
But titles such as the women's magazine Annabelle and Schweizer Familie, both of which lost quite a massive amount of circulation in 1999, also performed satisfactorily overall. In absolute terms, Annabelle generated additional revenues of CHF 5.2 million, or 19 percent.
And even the Swiss Family, despite a marked circulation loss of ten percent, only recorded a one percent drop in sales. The reason: the twelve percent growth in advertising space sold almost made up for the steep losses from subscriptions and single-unit sales. ZürichExpress was also one of last year's winners with an increase in revenue of 5.2 million Swiss francs or 13 percent.
Such good news does not apply to two titles: The flagship Tages-Anzeiger fell short of the previous year's result by 1.1 million Swiss francs, a loss of not quite one percentage point. And for Du, which was also in decline in terms of circulation, revenues deteriorated by 0.4 million Swiss francs.
Share capital to be increased to 100 million
But such small bumps cannot cloud the view of the future. The signs are good. Eberle: "In the first quarter of 2000, we were already able to exceed the record result of the previous year by about one million francs." Whether this will continue until the end of the year, however, is questionable. According to Michel M. Favre, Chairman of the TA Media Management Board, 2000 will be a "year of investment". Around 130 million will go into expanding the core competence of content providing, 30 million of which will go into TV 3 and 20 million into Winner Market. Favre: "It won't be quite so easy to maintain the top result of 1999."
Nevertheless, in the run-up to the decided IPO next fall - the first ever by a Swiss publishing house - TA-Media AG presents itself in historic top form. According to the will of the now widely ramified Coninx family of owners, a total of 33 percent of the share capital is to be made available to the public, 23 percent from a date not yet more precisely determined in the fall of this year and a further 10 percent in 2001. Details of the going public have also not yet been determined.
According to Hans Heinrich Coninx, Chairman of the Board of TA-Media, the resulting inflow of funds will be used to "pay off those family shareholders who want to make other commitments. On the other hand, the window to the capital market should enable us "to take advantage of opportunities at any time that support our path to the top of the Swiss publishing houses," says Coninx.
TA-Media in figures(monetary values in CHF million)
1999 1998 1997 1996
Sales 769.7 (+13%) 679.0 (+14%) 595.6 (+3%) 578.1
Cash flow from
Business activity 200.0 (+40%) 142.7 (+27%) 112.1 (+84%) 61.1
(cash flow)
Net profit 130.4 (+29%) 100.9 (+119%) 46.0 (+268%) 12.5
Headcount 1755 (+1.3%) 1732 (+0.3%) 1727 (-3.4%) 1787
TA-Media titles: Development CirculationTitles 1998 1999 +/- in%
Tages-Anzeiger 281 792 279 912 -0.7
Sunday newspaper 218 518 220 102 +0.7
Facts 104 462 104 598 +0.1
Annabelle 107,969 101,773 -5.8
Swiss family 172 625 155 324 -10
You 25 499 25 179 -1.3
Spick not begl. 54 687 ---
