The Belgian media group Roularta finished 2014 with a net loss of 142.47 million euros, compared to a loss of 57.9 million euros the year before, it announced on Monday. 2014’s result was affected by Roularta’s sale of its French activities. “The total impact of the intention to sell has been shown by a reduction in value per title, goodwill and Roularta Media Group SA’s receivables. It is 146 million euros. This impact, which has increased after the operational activities in France in 2014, shows an abandoned activities result of -155.2 million euros”, the group explained in a press release.
The net profit from continuing activities has reached 12.7 million euros, an increase of 30%. The operational result (EBIT) has also increased to 21.9 million euros (+41.1%) compared to 15.1 million euros in 2013.
The combined turnover was 476.9 million euros in 2014, a fall (-2.8%) compared to 2013. Roularta has said the fall “affects both printed media (-2.6%) and audiovisual media (-6.0%)”.
When talking about its prospects, the group has said that compared to the first semester of 2014, “the Belgian advertising portfolio has seen a slight increase in turnover for printed media over the first months of 2015. There has been a large increase for internet activities and a slight increase for audiovisual media”. The reader market is stable thanks to subscriptions, while cost control “is still being given a lot of attention”.
(Source: Belga)
