Future plc (LON:FUTR) have seen their shares rally over 7% on Monday morning following confident expectations.
Shares in Future trade at 1,362p (+6.41%). 3/2/20 11:07BST.
The British media firm said that it expects its annual results to be ahead of market expectations, despite both political and economic uncertainties affecting many British businesses.
The magazine and media brand said that it had carried strong trading momentum across the four month period, which ended on January 31st.
Following the strong trading form, Future said that they can expect financial year results to be “materially ahead of current market expectations”.
Interestingly, the firm saw audience members across its media division rise which caused the surge in strong organic revenue.
Future also saw higher conversion off margin revenue in eCommerce and digital display advertising.
For its financial year ended September 30, 2019 the company posted pretax profit of £12.7 million on revenue of £221.5 million.
Future commented: “The Group has continued to see strong momentum in the year to date; in particular, we have continued to grow the audience numbers within the Media division. This underpins strong organic revenue growth, which together with improved conversion of higher margin revenues, in both eCommerce and digital display advertising is benefitting the Group’s trading results. In addition, our cash position remains ahead of the Board’s expectations, also reflecting the strong cash conversion of our Media revenue streams.”
Interestingly, where other British firms have seen slumps in their trading Future have made ground. Shareholders will be particularly impressed with the confident, resilient nature of the firm as reflected in today’s update.
The political and economic turbulence is something which has affected all British business, but whilst there still could be periods of slow trading across 2020 some reassurance has been provided by the government.
On Friday, it was made official that UK negotiations with the EU had been formally completed and the process of withdrawal would be commencing. However, this is just a formality and investors remain cautious as Brexit “finally happens”.
