Fairfax erwartet 40 Prozent mehr Gewinn!!! - 500 Beiträge pro Seite

[Seefunk]

John Fairfax tips 40% profit rise
By Wendy Frew
August 6 2003





John Fairfax share rose 13c to $3 yesterday after the newspaper group said it expected to post net profit growth of close to 40 per cent for the full year.

The publisher of The Sydney Morning Herald expects a net profit around $125 million for the 12 months to June, before dividend payments on its hybrid equity worth about $16.6 million.

The forecast - which came at a time when the company`s share price was struggling to recover to its levels before news of a $1.1 billion New Zealand acquisition in April - was above market expectations of between $115 million and $120 million.

Chief executive Fred Hilmer said the forecast profit compared with $90 million in the previous financial year.

"We appear to be on track for a strong result for the company with earnings per share expected to increase by over 25 per cent," Mr Hilmer said.


"Publishing revenues have grown by approximately 4 per cent and costs and balance sheet items remain tightly under control."

Analysts said the forecast was pleasing but that investors would feel more confident about the company when it gave guidance on the outlook for the current financial year.

"The big issue now is the market`s confidence in the 2004 results, with a rough market consensus of 19.2c earnings per share," said one analyst.

"Is it deliverable? If it is the stock looks interesting," he said.

JBWere said in a note before the guidance that Fairfax was fairly priced at $2.87. The broker noted classified advertising volumes remained patchy.

"Fairfax should benefit from the recent closure of [online recruitment site] Monster.com.au but we also note that both Publishing & Broadcasting and News Corp . . . announced separate initiatives aimed at challenging Fairfax`s dominance in employment classifieds," it said.

PBL has agreed to buy 25 per cent of Australia`s leading online recruitment group, Seek, in which Seek replaces Monster on the ninemsn internet portal.

News Corp has relaunched its online jobs site CareerOne and will spend $7 million advertising the service.

Analysts at ABN Amro said in a report on the most recent ANZ job ads series that they didn`t expect the difficult advertising conditions facing Fairfax to abate in the near term.

"For Fairfax, the NSW and Victoria employment markets are relevant," said ABN Amro.

"NSW/Victoria advertising growth continues to lag the national trend. July job ads was 10 per cent lower than July 2002, compared to a national decrease of 0.7 per cent. The six month rolling average for NSW/Victoria job ads is currently 11 per cent below one year ago, compared to the national decrease of 3.4 per cent."

A Fairfax spokesman said the company remained confident about its position in the online recruitment market, where its MyCareer.com.au site was second to Seek.

"We were supposed to have been monstered by Monster, and they were with PBL, too, and that failed," he said.

"The prime focus for us is the markets where we have a large print presence, that is, NSW and Victoria, and in those markets we have been very close to Seek and we feel we are in a strongly competitive position."

[Seefunk]

Chart:

[SmartBanking]

immer noch ein klarer Aufwärtstrend. Aber ich denke es ist mal an der Zeit für eine kleinere Korrektur.


SB