At the Board meeting today, the Board of Directors of Schibsted ASA approved the interim financial statement as of September 30, 2005.
Please find enclosed the Interim Report for 3rd Quarter 2005.
Information on internet:
Schibsted’s web site: http://www.schibsted.no/en/
HUGIN Online: http://www.huginonline.no/SCH
Highlights
- The Group delivered a good result for Q3, with an operating profit (EBITA) of NOK 231 million (NOK 255 million). This gives an operating margin of 10 % (11 %).
- Increased investments in new operations debited the profit and loss account by approx. NOK 40 million in Q3.
- Strong advertising figures, despite a seasonally weak 3rd quarter.
- Aftenposten continued to develop positively in Q3, and achieved growth in the top and bottom lines during the quarter, with growth in both advertising and circulation revenues. Aftenposten launched its new weekend magazine “A-magasinet” on October 21st.
- FINN achieved its best ever Q3 result.
- VG’s circulation figures continued to fall during Q3, but VG’s readership figures has never been higher. VG’s new weekend magazine was launched on October 22nd and was well received by the market.
- Svenska Dagbladet’s advertising and circulation revenues increased, and the company achieved its best ever Q3 result.
- Svenska Dagbladet launched an online business newspaper in October, n24.se. After three weeks, n24.se is Sweden’s second-largest business website.
- Aftonbladet produced strong Q3 figures and achieved record-high advertising revenues. New projects debited the accounts with increased costs in Q3. The sale of advertisements linked to the search engine Hitta.se has been well received by the market.
- The Group’s online activities continued to develop positively. The online activities comprised 20% (17 %) of the Group’s operating profit (EBITA) in Q3. These include a new operation, Schibsted Søk, which launched its search engine, sesam.no, November 1st.
- New launches of 20minutos (Spain) in five cities leads to a stronger position for this free newspaper.
- Metronome Film & Television achieved a 43 % increase in revenue in Q3 compared to the corresponding period in 2004.
- Sandrew Metronome’s Q3 result was affected by the changes to the distribution agreement with Warner Home Video.
- TV 2’s revenues continued to grow, but the company’s profit in Q3 was affected by new investments. TV4’s Q3 result is expected to be considerably better than last year’s.
- The Book and Magazine publishing operations’ results continued to improve.
Consolidated result (IFRS)
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As of September 30,
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Q3 2004
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Q3 2005
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(figures in NOK mill.)
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2005
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2004
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2004
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|
2 336
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2 260
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Operating revenues
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7 189
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6 930
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9 690
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255
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231
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Operating profit (EBITA)
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734
|
639
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940
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(4)
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(16)
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Other items incl. goodwill
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191
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(45)
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(426)
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251
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215
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Operating profit (EBIT)
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925
|
594
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514
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|
251
|
198
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Profit before taxes
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939
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564
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476
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Oslo, 3 November 2005
The full Interim Report for 3rd Quarter 2005 including tables can be downloaded from the following link:
The Presentation of 3rd Quarter 2005 can be downloaded from the following link: