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The accounts for the 15 months to 28/12/2008, the first period reported under the new owners, are finally on show.
The good news is that over the 15 months Centurycomm Ltd (the RP operating subsidiary) made a post-tax profit of GBP 8.95m and Raceform Ltd (the “others” operating subsidiary) made a post-tax profit of GBP 1.63m.
The bad news is that these positives were overwhelmed in the holding company Stradbrook Acquisitions Ltd by finance charges – interest payable of GBP 18.39m and an exchange loss on translation of euro denominated loans of GBP 10.93m.
Allow for 594k of interest receivable and a small tax credit and the end result is that in the first 15 months of the new ownership the group made a loss on ordinary activities after finance charges and tax of GBP 17.66m.
On top of that there was goodwill amortisation of GBP 10.8m
On the subject of “going concern”, all three company accounts signed at 2 March 2010 say:
“Due to the current economic conditions there are inherent future uncertainties that may impact the business. As a result of this the directors have made enquiries and have taken into account the company’s forecasts and financial position and have a reasonable expectation that the company has adequate resources to continue in existence for the foreseeable future. For this reason the directors continue to adopt the going concern basis in preparing the accounts. “
Possibly some of those “enquiries” related to troubled, now-nationalised, lender Anglo-Irish Bank.
The group has GBP 30.6m of loans falling due 2 – 5 years after end 2008, and GBP 121.5m of loans falling due after 5 years (total GBP 152.1m).
Of these GBP 113.1m are denominated in GBP and GBP 39.0m are denominated in Euro.
They are repayable in quarterly instalments until 30 Sep 2015, and incur interest at LIBOR plus margins varying between 2.75% and 8%.
No joy for those of us wondering how the group is faring internationally (48 hour decs, etc):
“ The group’s revenues and costs are primarily derived from and incurred in the UK and the rest of Europe. The group have decided not to disclose information by segment as the directors deem that the information is prejudicial to the interests of the company.”
RP circulation Mon-Sat ABC audited in the period was 66,212; unaudited for Sun was 55,542.
Average monthly unique users of RP website in the period – 545,128 (Google Analytics).
Basic message I take away: underlying operations held up in the period, shame about the loans weighing them down.
Very interesting Wit, thanks.
I wonder how much impact web site charges have had on the traffic levels quoted in the accounts.
12-month average circulation for the newspaper had fallen to 60,973 by the end of 2009. The ABC for March — always its highest of the year — is due this Friday.
Thanks Wit , very revealing indeed , a bit like Man u , performing ok but finance shortfall holding them back
It will be interesting to see if they can survive the next couple of years , the increased revenue if any , must be derived from the internet side , so my prediction is all parts of the current site will be chargeable in the near future
cheers
Ricky
Average monthly unique users of RP website in the period – 545,128 (Google Analytics).
Is that unique IP addresses or unique registered users?
Average monthly unique users of RP website in the period – 545,128 (Google Analytics).
Is that unique IP addresses or unique registered users?
no idea, Cav – its a verbatim quote from page 3 of the Centurycomm directors report.
it reports 545,128 for the 15 months ended 28/12/2008, as against 542,846 for the 9 months ended 30/09/2007.
maybe someone familiar with the google analytics "solution" could say ?
The RP web log can be analysed for each unique IP "user" and which pages they move onto on the site. Would expect this to be all "users" and not only registered or paying ones as the intention is to maximise the number to impress advertisers. "Users" with the normal ISP dynamically allocated IP address will have a different IP each time they use the site, so the figures are gross exaggerations as regards actual unique person users (the data they don’t give).
The accounts of stradbrook are of no interest. it is the stability of FL Partners, the parent company, that is relevant. I have no idea whether they are good or bad
(Ricky…you should know this
)The going concern statement is not an issue. Thats quite typical in these structures. the bank is not the point here at all. it is a bog standard intercompany type statement
If Rp makes an operating profit, then it remains a saleable asset and will always find a buyer at a price
From that, there is no threat to the RP
FL Partners is a small private equity company. Its debts to buy RP was £170M and these have apparently risen to £180M. Irish banks funded many such bizarre PE takeovers based on the old pals act. There is a wall of bubble debt to refinance in the next few years both in USA and UK as well as Europe. The chances of making a business case to refinance RP on such small and likely reducing trading profits are about nil and interest rates would be far higher in any case making RP even more unviable.
The accounts of stradbrook are of no interest. it is the stability of FL Partners, the parent company, that is relevant.
how is FL Partners "the parent company" please?
it doesn’t hold a single share.
Stradbrook Acquisitions has many shareholders, some of them the principals of FL Partners in their individual names.
according to its accounts it has no "ultimate parent company" or "immediate parent undertaking".
Ok fair enough. it has been refered to as the parent company in the press. As i say, i havent looked, but the track record and stability of FL would still be relevant IMO (although robert indicates that they arent significant)
They paid 17 times current net profits for the RP, which is very high for a business which doesnt obviously have a huge amount of scope for growth
Sure Clive of course I do ….but these bank debts make it really hard to operate with independance
and yes its true RP is a saleable entity, but I ASK this , who in their right minds would want to buy the racing post ?
Interesting stuff though …..
Hope all is well with you Clive
cheers
Ricky
Not bad Ricky….building up a few clients slowly!
Any you care to pass onto me?!
The one item that i found most alarming was that they had taken loans at 8% above libor. That is desperate…
Sadly this is a microcosm of all that went on in Ireland in the last 10 years- lazy lax bankers granting huge loans to buy any kind of business at any kind of multiple to their buddies, the deal being the thing and future viability not really coming into it. Many chickens now coming home to roost and as the government kindly put us taxpayers on the hook for it all, the country is now bankrupt.
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