Stokes laughing as Seven West profits skyrocket 97%

By By David Blight | 22 August 2012
 
Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Seven West Media's net profit after tax jumped 97% to $226.9 million for the last financial year, after West Australian Newspapers' acquisition of Seven Media Group last year.

The last financial year's results mark the first time the group has reported a full year of earnings as Seven West Media, after the acquisition in April 2011.

Profits at Kerry Stokes' media empire jumped from $115.1 million in the previous financial year. Revenues for the period were $1.9 billion.

Seven West managing director and chief executive Don Voelte said: “Our businesses are performing well in what has been a challenging past twelve months for all media companies.

“We are building our businesses with a focus on our content that drives our audiences and our ability to deliver revenue, and new forms of delivery of that content.

“We are also focused on greater efficiencies across our business to manage our costs and continue to deliver our market-leading margins.”

Last year's acquisition created a wide-reaching organisation with a range of the country's strongest performing media businesses, including Seven Network, Pacific Magazines, The West Australian and 50% of Yahoo!7.

The company's television division saw a 2.7% increase in advertising revenue to $1.12 billion, while ad revenue for the company's online division increased 15.7% to $84.6 million.

In contrast, the newspaper and magazine units saw declines resulting from wider structural problems in the market, seeing ad revenue drop 6.5% and 11% respectively.

The company delivered in line with market guidance provided on 16 July as part of its $440 million successful capital raising, which moved to reduce debt and strengthen the company's balance sheet.

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