TIDMXLM

RNS Number : 8684Q

XLMedia PLC

11 June 2018

 
For immediate release  11 June 2018

XLMedia PLC

("XLMedia" or the "Group" or the "Company")

Trading update

XLMedia (AIM: XLM), a leading provider of digital performance marketing, announces the following trading update for the year ending 31 December 2018.

Underlying trading in the year to date has been stable with the Group actively deciding to focus on higher margin business and ceasing certain lower margin media buying activities. The Group has also seen some impact from regulatory changes, namely the closure of the Australian market at the end of 2017 in addition to uncertainty regarding the regulatory status of certain European markets during 2018. These regulatory changes have triggered a re-alignment in how operators and marketers can work which should lead to a clearer and more functional environment. There has also been some reduction in SEO performance in few specific territories.

As a result of these factors, the Board now expects to report lower revenues than expected of circa US $130 million with marginally lower adjusted EBITDA(1) compared to the prior year, for the current financial year, with a corresponding impact on profit before tax.

The Board however is pleased to report that the recently acquired personal finance assets continue to perform well and expects total publishing revenues in this sector to continue to grow as a proportion of overall Group publishing revenues during 2018.

Elsewhere across the business an accelerated effort to increase our reach whilst adding new channels, markets and products is currently being undertaken in an effort to optimise performance and Group diversification. Furthermore, with the US Supreme Court repealing the ban on sports betting last month, we have accelerated our efforts to ensure we are well positioned to service those operators who will be active in the market, although we believe its positive effects will only be felt in the medium to long term

In January 2018, XLMedia raised $43.6 million in order to support further investment in the business and fund additional acquisition led growth. Since then the Group has acquired Whichbingo, in April 2018, as well as additional US personal finance websites. All of these assets are currently being integrated into the Group as we seek to leverage synergy benefits and improve the performance of these assets as they are integrated and migrated onto our Palcon proprietary platform.

The Group currently has a solid pipeline of acquisitions targets under various stages of evaluation and the Board remains optimistic of completing further transactions within 2018.

As in previous years, the Board expects to issue a pre-close trading statement in July and re-affirms its stated dividend policy of returning at least 50 per cent. of net profits to shareholders by way of dividend payments.

1 - Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization adjusted to exclude share based payments

The information contained within this announcement is deemed to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014. Upon the publication of this announcement, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.

The person responsible for the release of this announcement is Mr. Yehuda Dahan, Group CFO.

For further information, contact:

 
 XLMedia plc                        Via Vigo Communications 
  Ory Weihs 
  www.xlmedia.com 
 Vigo Communications                Tel: 020 7390 0230 
  Jeremy Garcia / Fiona Henson / 
  Kate Rogucheva 
  www.vigocomms.com 
 Cenkos Securities plc (Nomad and   Tel: 020 7397 8900 
  Joint Broker) 
  Camilla Hume / Mark Connelly 
  www.cenkos.com 
 Berenberg (Joint Broker)           Tel: 020 3207 7800 
  Chris Bowman / Mark Whitmore 
  www.berenberg.com

This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact rns@lseg.com or visit www.rns.com.

END

TSTZFLBFVQFZBBK

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 11, 2018 02:00 ET (06:00 GMT)

Xlmedia (LSE:XLM)
Historical Stock Chart
From May 2024 to Jun 2024 Click Here for more Xlmedia Charts.
Xlmedia (LSE:XLM)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jun 2023 to Jun 2024 Click Here for more Xlmedia Charts.