Independent News and Media has reported operating profits of €87.9m for the year ending December 2010, a 13.9% increase on the €77.2m reported in 2009.
Revenues for the year rose by 3.3% to €605.3m from €585.7m despite the difficult economic conditions of 2010. Pre-tax profits were €4.6m.
The media group said that underlying advertising revenue, which represents 41% of group revenue, was down 6.9%. Underlying circulation revenue, which represents 28% of group revenues, fell by 2%.
The company said it had seen a 'significant' increase in newsprint prices in the Irish market of about 20% in 2011, but this has been offset by continuing cost reductions across the group.
INM's Island of Ireland division saw revenues decline by 3.6% to €399.1m, while operating profits rose by 1.3% to €53.9m. The company said the contraction in advertising revenues seen in 2009 continued in 2010, albeit at a lesser rate.
INM said that with the exception of recruitment advertising, which proved to be surprisingly resilient despite the economic conditions, all other advertising categories were behind 2009 levels.
'Property continues to be one of the hardest hit categories as a consequence of a market that remains at a virtual standstill due to the crisis in the banking sector and the poor performance of the domestic economy,' the company said.
'Advertising conditions remain challenging and, while visibility remains short, we are not anticipating any material advertising uplift in 2011,' commented group chief executive Gavin O'Reilly.
'Assuming more normalised advertising conditions, easier comparatives, continued cost vigilance and having eliminated loss-making businesses, we are targeting a further improvement in operating profit for the year,' he added.
The company said that underlying revenues at its South Africa division were up 20% to €206.2m while underlying operating profits rose by 29% to €43.4m. INM said this performance was due to favourable currency movements, good revenue management and improved advertising revenues during the World Cup last summer.
INM said that 2010 marked a return to growth for its Australian operations, APN, with revenue up 25.8% to €712m and operating profit up 36.9% to €139.2m. In a trading update, APN said this week that its first quarter operating profit would be hit by the major floods in Queensland and the Christchurch earthquake.
As part of the group's focus on eliminating loss making activities in what it called a very crowded Sunday newspaper market, the Irish Daily Star Sunday - in which INM was a 50% shareholder - and the Sunday Tribune - in which INM was a 29.9% shareholders, closed earlier this year.
The company also sold the loss-making UK Independent titles during the year to a company controlled by Russian business man Alexander Lebedev.
During the year, INM deconsolidated APN as a result to changes on the board, but the company said its stake remains at 31.6% and its economic exposure to Australasia and the diversification that it brings remains unaffected.
It said that ABP is now excluded from INM's reported revenue and operating profit figures and INM's shares of APN's net profit is now reflected separately as a discontinued operation.
Shares in the company closed unchanged at 59 cent in Dublin.
