DMGT ups dividend as Covid-19 hits annual profit

Daily Mail and General Trust edged up its dividend and said it was confident about the future as the publisher reported a 50% drop in annual profit.

Pretax profit for the year to the end of September, excluding impairments, goodwill and other items, fell to £72m from £145m as revenue declined 14% to £1.2bn. Statutory pretax profit fell to £52m from £134m.

DMGT increased its annual dividend by 1% to 24.1p a share. The company's shares rose 1.6% to 692p at 08:54 GMT.

Statutory revenue fell 18% to £606m at the company's business-to-business division and 10% to £604m at the consumer media operation, which includes the Daily Mail and Mail Online.

The company said effect of the coronavirus crisis on its events, consumer media and UK property information operations more than offset resilient performance from insurance risk, education technology and US property information.

Chief Executive Paul Zwillenberg said: "I am pleased with DMGT's performance in a highly challenging environment and am immensely proud of the way that everyone at DMGT has responded. The group is resilient, adaptable and future-focused. We will, as always, retain our long-term perspective and our confidence in the future is reflected by the board's recommendation to increase the dividend."

DMGT said insurance risk, US property information and education technology were in a good position to increase revenue. The outlook for UK property information and consumer media is uncertain and is "particularly challenging" for events and exhibitions, it said.

The company had £168m of pro forma net cash at the end of the year and £373m of undrawn bank credit. Statutory net cash was £185m.