Earnings Release • Oct 30, 2020
Earnings Release
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Van: Xavier Bouckaert xavier.bouckaert@management.roularta.be Verzonden: vrijdag 30 oktober 2020 17:59 Aan: Jeroen Mouton Onderwerp: Press release: Roularta Corona update
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Regulated information
Embargo - 30 October 2020 at 6:00 pm
30 October 2020
Further to the board of directors meeting of 30 October, Roularta Media Group has issued a 'trading update'.
After a strong start of the year, the lockdown from the second half of March caused a significant drop in advertising and events revenues. Publication of the free papers De Streekkrant and De Zondag was even interrupted for some time during the period of shop closures.
However, the summer months saw a good recovery and Roularta had a strong third quarter. Global revenue remained only 4% below the 2019 level in Q3, compared to -18.5% in the first half of 2020. YTD end of September 2020 that was still -14% (less income from advertising and events versus more income from the readership market).
EBITDA of 7.1 million euros was realised in Q3. YTD end of September, EBITDA was 12.5 million euros, taking into account a decrease of 0.5 million euros in contributions from the joint ventures. Mediafin (50% Roularta) achieved a standalone EBITDA of 5.7 million euros with the newspapers De Tijd and L'Echo, of which 0.4 million euros are retained in the EBITDA of Roularta after mainly the recurring amortizations of the brands De Tijd and L'Echo.
This resulted in a turnaround with a net result after tax of 1.8 million euros YTD end of September compared to -1.4 million for the first half of the year.
A second lockdown and the general business climate as a result of the new Corona wave will have a negative impact on the last two months of the year.
Roularta is debt-free and at the end of September 2020 enjoys an increased net cash position of 95 million euros. In the meantime the new rotary press is now operating as planned and this investment has largely been paid for.
Contact
| Xavier Bouckaert | Rik De Nolf | Jeroen Mouton |
|---|---|---|
| CEO | President board of directors | CFO |
| Tel + 32 51 26 63 23 |
Tel +32 51 26 63 23 | Tel +32 51 26 68 92 |
Contact

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