Patrick Taylor’s statement at the Centaur plc AGM:
"Underlying revenues across the Group as a whole grew by 3% in the first four months of 2015, and higher rates of growth are expected over the remainder of the year. Digital paid-for content revenues are continuing to grow well. Encouragingly, digital advertising revenues have returned to growth and as a consequence total advertising revenues grew by 2% in the first four months of 2015, a marked improvement on the 9% decline reported in 2014. The Group's live events revenues reflect the impact of event phasing and the planned removal of a number of low margin events.
The Group's new operating structure and events programme continues to deliver efficiency benefits. As a result, in the first half of 2015 the Group expects adjusted operating margins to be slightly ahead of expectations, despite the previously announced re-phasing of two awards events from June to coincide with the Festival of Marketing in the second half of the year.
Digital product development is progressing well. The migration of branded web sites onto a new, responsive mobile platform and the development of new data intelligence products have progressed as planned. The Board remains encouraged by the outlook for 2015, and anticipates that trading for the full year will be in line with current market expectations."
