New bank facilities for Trinity Mirror as profits dip
NEWSPAPER group Trinity Mirror – which owns the Birmingham Post and the Coventry Telegraph – saw revenues and profits fall in 2011.
It has now agreed a refinancing deal and will cut pensions payments for the next three years.
The group, which also owns the Birmingham Mail and the Stafford Post, saw revenues down to £746.6m (2010: £761.5m) for the year to January 1, 2012, with adjusted operating profit also down at £104.5m (2010: £123.3m). Adjusted pre-tax profit was also down 18% to £91.9m (2010: £108.6m).
Trinity Mirror has secured new bank facilities with RBS and Lloyds TSB of £110m to August 2015, reducing to £94m in March 2015. As part of the refinancing deal it will reduce deficit funding payments to its pensions scheme to £10m a year for the next three years before reverting to normalised funding payments of £33m from 2015.
The group said its new bank facility and reduced pension contributions ensure it has sufficient financial flexibility for the “foreseeable future”.
The group has also announced that it will be investing £10m in a new product – launching a daily deals business called happli. It is focused on attracting and retaining loyal, long-term customers for retailers.
Sly Bailey, chief executive of Trinity Mirror, said: “Our investment in the technology led transformation of our publishing infrastructure is well advanced and on budget and will be completed by the end of 2013.
“The creation of a scalable industry leading publishing platform enables us to reduce costs through increased efficiencies and to develop and launch new digital products and services for our customers across multiple platforms.”
She added: “We are continuing to develop revenues in both B2C and B2B sectors. Today we have launched happli, a new brand and business proposition in the fast growing daily deals market, which we expect to deliver revenues of circa £20m by 2014.”
