Fairfax Media broadcasts profit growth for fiscal 2010
Fairfax Media Ltd (ASX: FXJ) announced on Friday that it has regained profit for 2010 financial year despite a slide on its overall revenue as it looks forward for more growth in the remaining months of the year.
The media company said that as of June 30 of the current year, it has achieved a net profit of $282.12 million over the past 12 months, coming from the $380.05 million posted in the previous year while total revenue reached $2.482 billion, retreating by 4.5 percent from the $2.605 billion it earned in 2008/09.
Fairfax said that its earning before interest and tax (EBIT) was $525.43 million, improving from the loss of $176.56 million it incurred in fiscal 2009, prompting the company to declare a final dividend distribution of 1.4 cents per share, fully franked, en route to a full year payment of 11.5 cents per security.
Company chairman Roger Corbett said that the growth was attained as the management focused on shoring up revenue, implementing cost effective measures and cutting corporate debt.
Mr Corbett said that the gains achieved by the company this year placed it in a strong position for assuming leadership in the country's media business.
Fairfax chief executive Brian McCarthy added that the company has been working hard for the past 20 months to gain more footholds in the evolving media market and weak advertising markets.
Mr McCarthy stressed that the company's solid management capability guided it to further growths in the print, online and broadcasting segments of the industry, with additional growth prospects in the mobile application area.