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Reach is the UK’s largest commercial news publisher, with print titles and associated websites including the Daily Mirror and Daily Express, and regional papers such as the Manchester Evening News and Liverpool Echo. The shares have featured on SCSW before, but it’s somewhat unfortunate to note that I recommended the shares as a main buy in Nove... ...
Advertising is often considered a bellwether for the broader economy, with shifts in ad spending typically occurring two quarters before changes in economic activity become evident; when businesses anticipate economic growth, they often increase their advertising budgets to capitalize on new market opportunities. Conversely, during periods of ec... ...
More new highs for a SCSW NAP. Jefferies released an intriguing buy note this month, highlighting positive momentum for Future’s top 12 websites, which account for 70% of its traffic. The note emphasises improvements in Google’s search visibility, particularly for Tech Radar, which experienced a 45% increase in its Sistrix Visibility Score from... ...
An eventful month. We have a new Prime Minister with a significant majority. Across the pond, there was an assassination attempt on Trump, and Biden decided not to run for a second term. Cracks began to appear in US tech stocks, causing investors to dump AI giants in a rotation trade and it looks like the UK is becoming a land of plenty, with a... ...
Subscribers were forgiven if they politely yawned after Future surged by £2 after its H1 showed an inflection point in growth, and strong cashflow generation - pretty much what had been anticipated in my main write up in November. Sales were £392m, an organic decline of 2%, with operating profit of £106m representing a margin of 27%. But organic... ...
Ahead of interims on 16 May, FUTR said there had been a return to organic growth in Q2. There have been splendid performances from Go Compare and B2B operations and a resilient performance in magazines, although affiliate and digital advertising revenues were still sluggish. Importantly, there is also confirmation that its Growth Acceleration St... ...
I met with Vin Murria, one of the shrewder dealmakers on the London software scene, again this month. She is an old friend to SCSW. The last time I met her was probably 10 years ago when she was still running her previous company, Advanced Computer Software (then in her late forties), with the remit of building a business in primary care - softw... ...
Completing the trio of publishers to update the market this month (see Bloomsbury and Wilmington), Future’s AGM was told performance has been broadly on track this year, with an improvement in growth being seen since the end of Q4. Within the mix, price comparison site GoCompare and B2B has been faring very well, whist digital ads / e-com affili... ...
SCSW’s traditional New Year ritual is the NAPS mini-portfolio each January. Derived from a French card game named Napoleon, shortened to “Nap,” it refers to the best hand one can have and for us, it is an exercise of providing a select-once-and-leave-for-a-year portfolio. In 2023, I am not sure how satisfying it was that despite witnessing a do... ...
For a business that had a tidal wave of free cash generation of £253m, of which £96m went towards debt reduction (to leave net debt at £327m or 1.25x), a further £47m on acquisitions and £13m on buybacks, any normal market conditions would have seen the shares surge. Instead we had a wild gyration in November, with the shares ranging from £5.50-... ...