8 May 2014
Perform Group plc Q1 Interim Management Statement
Perform Group plc, the leading digital sports media group, today issues its interim management statement for the three months to 31 March 2014 ("the period").
Highlights
· Year on year revenue growth of 32% to £56.9m (Q1 2013: £43.0m)
· Content Distribution revenues up 32% in Q1, attributable to new Watch & Bet Contracts and a strong contribution from Opta acquired in 2013.
· Strong Q1 display advertising performance; business is well positioned for the 2014 World Cup.
· ePlayer headline quarterly sell through rate of 51% and total quarterly streams viewed 1.5 billion. (Q1 2013: sell through rate of 43% and 1.1 billion total streams).
· Cost reduction plan on track with benefits to come through in H2 in line with guidance.
· On track to achieve FY14 revenue and adjusted EBITDA growth in line with board expectations. The timing of the cost reduction benefits will result in a H1/H2 EBITDA split close to one third and two thirds.
· Appointment of Chief Financial Officer - Ashley Milton. Ashley is currently CFO of Group M EMEA, the Media Investment division of WPP, the world's largest advertising and marketing group. Prior to joining GroupM in 2011, Ashley was Group Finance Director of Tarsus Group plc and his earlier career included senior finance roles at Aegis Group.
Simon Denyer, Joint Chief Executive Officer, said:
"We are pleased to report that the group has made a positive start to 2014, with Q1 showing strong year on year revenue growth. Good early progress has been made on the cost reduction plans laid out at the full year results and we remain on track to hit our cost base targets. Overall the Group remains confident that it will deliver full year revenue and EBITDA growth in line with the board expectations."
"We are delighted to appoint Ashley as our new CFO and that the Group has attracted such high calibre talent. Ashley brings with him an excellent track record as a CFO and also a highly valuable breadth and depth of experience of the advertising sector, which is a significant strategic focus of the Group."
Conference call
A conference call for analysts and investors is being held today at 08:00
Dial in: +44 (0) 20 3139 4830
Participant code: 20513561#
A replay facility will be available following the call for a period of 7 days
Replay dial-in: +44 (0)20 3426 2807
Replay passcode: 648108#
Enquiries
Perform Group plc Tulchan Communications
Polly Elvin Stephen Malthouse / Giles Kernick
Telephone +44 (0) 203 372 0600 Telephone +44 (0) 207 353 4200
Business Performance
Content Distribution
Year on year revenue growth of 32% to £37.3m (Q1 2013: £28.3m) with underlying revenue growth of 10%. Headline KPIs for the period:
· 4,936 live consumer bookmaker events streamed (Q1 2013: 4,158) with the increase primarily football. On track to deliver 17,000 events in the full year.
· 24,718 trader bookmaker events delivered during the period (Q1 2013: 17,114), with the increase across football, basketball and volleyball. On track to deliver 80,000 events in the full year.
· 942 Betting & Media clients during the period (Q1 2013: 422) with the year on year increase primarily driven by the inclusion of Opta acquired in July 2013.
Quarter ended 31 March 2014 | Quarter ended 31 December 2013 | Quarter ended 30 September 2013 | Quarter ended 30 June 2013 | Quarter ended 31 March 2013 | |
Consumer bookmaker live events streamed during the period | 4,936 | 4,182 | 4,339 | 3,864 | 4,158 |
Trader bookmaker events delivered during the period | 24,718 | 25,086 | 19,704 | 16,108 | 17,114 |
Betting & Media clients during the period | 942 | 889 | 799 | 430 | 422 |
Advertising & Sponsorship (video)
Year on year revenue growth of 28% to £5.0m (Q1 2013: £3.9m).
· Strong start to the year with total streams of 1.5 billion and a headline sell through rate of 51% reflecting an increase in sell through rate across all geographies.
· Improved sell-through rate in the US following sales being brought in-house in 2013.
· Good growth in Rest of the world with total streams up 89% year on year to 585m and a much improved sell through rate of 33% driven by progress made in territories such as Japan and Turkey.
· Significant software programme underway to build ePlayer 3.0, our next generation video advertising product.
· Full geographic breakdown for ePlayer in Appendix.
Headline KPIs for the period:
Quarter ended 31 March 2014 | Quarter ended 31 Dec 2013 | Quarter ended 30 Sept 2013 | Quarter ended 30 June 2013 | Quarter ended 31 March 2013 | |
Total for all territories | |||||
Total streams (millions) | 1,544 | 1,452 | 1,389 | 1,089 | 1,113 |
Sell through rate (%) | 51% | 54% | 42% | 52% | 43% |
Advertising & Sponsorship (display)
Year on year revenue growth of 65% to £8.1m (Q1 2013: £4.9m), reflecting strong underlying growth of over 40% and the effect of a full quarter of Sporting News acquired March 2013. Key highlights and headline KPIs for the period:
· An average 113 million monthly website and mobile unique users (Q1 2013: 77 million) across the Group's owned display network.
· Record Goal traffic of 50.6 million unique users in January (vs 37.1 million January 13) , of which over 30% was across mobile devices.
· Goal Live app launched and Goal News App to be re-launched across Android, IOS and Windows in May.
· Global sponsor pipeline continues to strengthen with deals contracted with brands such as Puma, Hyundai, Sony, Samsung, Gatorade and Chevrolet.
Subscription
Year on year revenue growth of 6% to £3.6m (Q1 2013: £3.4m). Headline KPIs for the period:
· 239,000 subscribers who have access to live or video-on-demand content via the internet (Q1 2013: 224,000).
Quarter ended | Quarter ended | Quarter ended | Quarter ended | Quarter ended | |
31 March 2014 | 31 December 2013 | 30 September 2013 | 30 June 2013 | 31 March 2013 | |
Subscribers at period end | 239 | 223 | 231 | 210 | 224 |
Technology and production
Year on year revenue growth of 12% to £2.8m (Q1 2013: £2.5m), however still expect to see a year on year decrease in revenues for the FY14.
To assist in understanding these results included below are quarterly revenue comparatives for 2014 and 2013 to date.
2014
Quarter to 31 March £'000 | |
Content distribution | 37,331 |
Advertising and sponsorship (display) | 8,081 |
Advertising and sponsorship (video) | 5,015 |
Subscription | 3,609 |
Technology and production | 2,823 |
Total | 56,859 |
2013
Quarter to 31 December £'000 | Quarter to 30 September £'000 | Quarter to 30 June £'000 | Quarter to 31 March £'000 | |
Content distribution | 39,718 | 34,287 | 30,515 | 28,338 |
Advertising and sponsorship (display) | 9,426 | 7,300 | 6,755 | 4,856 |
Advertising and sponsorship (video) | 6,009 | 4,413 | 5,272 | 3,895 |
Subscription | 3,762 | 3,380 | 3,601 | 3,412 |
Technology and production | 5,023 | 2,381 | 3,277 | 2,515 |
Total | 63,938 | 51,761 | 49,420 | 43,016 |
Financial Position
During Q1 the Group paid £4.2m to acquire Activaweb SAS and a dividend of c. £1m to Mackolik 3rd party shareholders. The Group also incurred c. £2.5m of exceptional cash restructuring costs during the period, which relate to the cost reduction programme announced in March 2014. There were no other significant changes to the financial position of the Group.
The above non-statutory consolidated revenue numbers and the statement on financial position have not been audited nor reviewed by the Group's auditors, Deloitte LLP.
Appendix
Quarter ended 31 March 2014 | Quarter ended 31 Dec 2013 | Quarter ended 30 Sept 2013 | Quarter ended 30 June 2013 | Quarter ended 31 March 2013 | |
Total for all territories | |||||
Total streams (millions) | 1,544 | 1,452 | 1,389 | 1,089 | 1,113 |
Total streams sold (millions) | 794 | 790 | 584 | 573 | 474 |
Average monthly unique users (millions) | 135 | 142 | 122 | 123 | 118 |
Sell through rate (%) | 51% | 54% | 42% | 52% | 43% |
United States and United Kingdom | |||||
Total streams (millions) | 835 | 838 | 713 | 556 | 615 |
Total streams sold (millions) | 530 | 657 | 416 | 374 | 355 |
Average monthly unique users (millions) | 81 | 91 | 71 | 60 | 60 |
Sell through rate (%) | 64% | 78% | 58% | 67% | 58% |
FIGS | |||||
Total streams (millions) | 125 | 108 | 158 | 176 | 187 |
Total streams sold (millions) | 72 | 68 | 70 | 107 | 75 |
Average monthly unique users (millions) | 16 | 15 | 19 | 23 | 19 |
Sell through rate (%) | 58% | 63% | 44% | 61% | 40% |
Rest of World | |||||
Total streams (millions) | 585 | 506 | 518 | 357 | 310 |
Total streams sold (millions) | 192 | 66 | 98 | 92 | 44 |
Average monthly unique users (millions) | 38 | 36 | 32 | 40 | 39 |
Sell through rate (%) | 33% | 13% | 19% | 26% | 14% |
This information is provided by RNS
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