Business News

Trinity Mirror plc Interim Management Statement

Thursday 11. November 2010 - Trinity Mirror plc is today issuing an Interim Management Statement covering the 17 weeks of trading to 31 October 2010 ('the period') and describing the Group's financial position and performance, updated to the latest practicable date.

Outlook
The Board remains confident that the Group will deliver a robust performance for 2010 in line with expectations.
Trading since the half year has remained volatile due to the fragile economic environment and the uncertainty resulting from the Government spending review. Whilst September advertising revenues were below recent trends the Board is encouraged by an improvement in the rate of advertising revenue decline in October to 2% (excluding the acquisition of GMG Regional Media).
The Group continues to benefit from ongoing management initiatives which drive efficiencies through the re-engineering of core business processes. As a result the Group remains on track to deliver structural cost savings of £25 million with the absolute cost base falling by circa £60 million for the full year. This reduction in costs is after absorbing inflationary cost increases. Whilst newsprint prices for the full year have fallen, we experienced an increase in prices in the second half of 2010 with further pricing pressure anticipated for 2011.
The Group remains cash generative and net debt has fallen by a further £20 million to £288 million since the half year. The Board expects net debt to fall further in the remainder of the second half of the year.
The Board envisages that the trading environment will remain challenging over the remainder of the year and into 2011, however, it anticipates that the rate of decline in revenues will improve.