Postimees Group makes €5.6 million losses on past financial year
Private media company Postimees Group has declared turnover of €37.9 million, with net losses of €5.6 million for the past financial year.
Postimees reports its financial year over a 16-month period, from May 1 2019; the previous 16 months had seen a €53-million turnover and €8.9 million losses.
"The effects of the coronavirus crisis were felt hard by year-end and led to a fall in sales revenue, but in the bigger picture Postimees Group is actually on course to reduce its deficit," the group's managing dircetor Andrus Raudsalu told BNS.
Raudsalu noted that reaching a balanced budget should happen in the next few years.
"We can also see that we have reduced this deficit vigorously year-on-year. Even after taking the extraordinary costs and the longer year (i.e. the 16 months – ed.), the deficit has still been reduced," he said, adding that all private media had been able to do the same.
The coronavirus crisis had also led to greater numbers of people taking online subscriptions, he said.
"At the end of the coronavirus crisis and perhaps also particularly in summer we saw a strong rise in digital subscriptions – and this relates to the current financial year – continuing into autumn," he added.
Postimees Group financial year breakdown:
- €3.6 million invested in property, plant and equipment, with a significant proportion relating to the group's new office building.
- €2 million was invested in intangible assets.
- Advertising sales accounted for €22.6 million, orders for €10.5 million.
- Average number of full-time employees fell by 37, to 543.
- Salary costs: €14.5 million; during the 16 months of the previous financial year, the figure was €19.5 million.
- Losses total 30.7 million when cumulatively added to previous periods.
- Working capital in the red to the tune of €8.3 million as of June.
Postimees Group's management said the long-term goal for the group is as an independently operating and sustainable company, as a separate entity, and with less reliance on the liquidity provided by its parent company, until recently UP Invest, which had been owned by media, pharmaceuticals and entertainment magnate Margus Linnamäe.
Earlier this month, the company said it would be merging with its next-level parent company MM Grupp and continue activities under the business name MM Grupp OÜ.
In addition to the daily of the same name and all its regional variants and portals, Postimees Group operates newswire service BNS in Estonia and Lithuania, several commercial radio stations, four TV channels including the flagship Kanal 2, and several magazines.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte