Digital sales boost underlying growth at Centaur Media

Business information and events group Centaur Media rose strongly on Thursday after saying that trading in the last two months of the year has been in line with expectations.

Centaur also announced that it has completed the acquisition of digital marketing information provider Econsultancy.com, first announced on June 22nd, for £12m.

"FY12 has been a significant year of change for Centaur, culminating in the recently completed acquisition of Econsultancy," said Chief Executive Geoff Wilmot.

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"Our revenue mix has improved significantly, with a notable increase in the proportion of digital revenues. At the same time, we have delivered underlying revenue growth despite difficult trading conditions and have secured a significant improvement in margins," he said.

Underlying revenues (continuing operations and adjusted for the impact of acquisitions) are expected to be 2% up year-on-year in the 12 months to June 30th, helped by strong underlying growth in Digital revenues, which now account for 30% of group sales, up from 26% last year. Events revenues have shown "good" growth with Marketing Week Live, its marketing event in London in June, reporting revenues up 23% on the previous year.

EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) margins should increase from 14% to 18%, while profits are said to be "in line".

Net debt at the end of the year stood at £7.2m better than the £9.4m forecast.

Peel Hunt reiterated its 'buy' rating and 65p target price for the stock on Thursday, "material upside" to the closing price of 31p the day before.

"The balance sheet is far from stretched, the yield is substantial and well covered, and the management team has demonstrated a clear strategy and executed deals consistent with this," said analyst Malcolm Morgan.

Shares were up 4.84% at 32.5p before the close.

BC