West Australian Newspapers Holdings Ltd (WAN) saw its shares dip 4%, then recover half that yesterday after it revealed a 14.4% rise in third quarter earnings.
Net trading profit after tax rose to $22 million for the three months to March, the Perth-based company said in a statement to the ASX yesterday.
The shares fell to a day’s low of $7.83, before recovering to regain the $8 mark and close at $8.04, off 18c or 2.2%.
For the nine-month period, profit still fell 8% to $71.5 million after a weak first half.
Revenue rose 6.75% to $100.9 million for the quarter, boosted by a 9% rise in advertising revenue over the same period a year earlier (which was depressed by the slump and the downturn in Perth property and the mining sector).
Expenses for the quarter rose 6.35% to $46.3 million.
In the statement, WAN CEO, Chris Wharton, said he was pleased with the result in the quarter.
"The result shows the continuing improvement that we started to see in late November and December. It reflects not only an improving advertising environment but also our efforts to manage our cost base while improving our newspapers.
“Within The West Australian we saw gross advertising revenue for the quarter record period on period growth of 8.9%.
"We also took advantage of the traditionally quiet post Christmas period to review, reinvigorate and relaunch our two primary Saturday newspaper inserted magazines, West Weekend and Seven Days.
“These updated products have been well received. I am confident they, coupled with the ongoing improvement of the newspaper, will deliver a positive impact on the business.
“Business for the remainder of the year appears to be solid with continuing recovery over relatively weak prior year comparatives.
"Our focus is to take business decisions to improve our performance for the years ahead and to deliver a satisfactory outcome in 2010," he said.
Small specialist NSW-based steel group, Bisalloy has produced a sharp upgrade in 2010 earnings guidance.
The company told the ASX yesterday that it was upgrading its earnings estimate in "a recovering market".
In fact earnings look like recovering from a loss at the December half year to a trading profit before tax, interest band depreciation of up to $5 million or more before foreign exchange losses.
As well, debt will be slashed to around $20 million from $36 million.
”Overall market conditions remain positive” Managing Director Robert Terpening said in the statement.
“Notwithstanding pricing remaining competitive, production volumes continue to increase.
"Whilst there have been some increases in steel input costs, our margins have recovered from the level experienced through calendar year 2009 and we expect margins to remain at current levels for the balance of this financial year.
“In February 2010 we announced that the Company expected to make an operating profit for the full financial year.
“Based on current market conditions, the Board anticipates that Bisalloy will generate an EBITDA before FX of between $5.3m and $5.8m for FY10.
"This compares to the equivalent EBITDA loss of $0.1m for the half year.
"Due to our distribution network in New Zealand, Indonesia and Thailand and the continuing strength of the Australian dollar, the Company expects FX losses of around $0.5m for FY10.
"The Company would expect our borrowings to have reduced to around $20m at June 2010, down from $36m at 30 June 2009."
Bisalloy says it is Australia’s only manufacturer of high-strength structural, wear-resistant and armour steel plates using quenched and tempered steel. Bisplate is used in the mining, construction, general fabrication and defence sectors.
It has a distribution network across Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia and Thailand.
Bisalloy shares rose 3c, or 15%, to 23c yesterday.
