Johnston Press insists £248m loss and listing as going concern is "not new news"
Ashley Highfield, the chief executive of Johnston Press, has insisted that a warning by Deloitte over Johnston Press's going concern status was "not new news", as the company reports a £248.7m half-year pre-tax loss.
Net debt fell during the period from £361.7m to £306.4m, with the £10m buy-out by News International of its print contract playing a part in this.
Highfield said: “Although the economic outlook is not without challenges, momentum has continued into the second half, underpinned by the re-structuring and re-focusing of the business, an increasingly stable advertising market and growth in circulation and digital revenues. This has enabled us to report like for like operating profit up 4.3 per cent, digital revenues up 13.3 per cent and net debt down 15.3 per cent, with total advertising decline rate narrowing to 6.3 per cent during June and July 2013.
“We remain focused on adapting our business to the changing environment in which we operate and reaching the point where digital growth will offset any further decline so that we can return to overall top line growth.”
Speaking to the Herald, he added: "The auditors are required to look 15 months out and looking at the outer quarters they wish to highlight, and indeed we have highlighted, that were a tsunami of a combination of events to happen we might get closer to our (bank) covenants than we would ideally like. It is prudent to make people aware of it."
This comes after Highfield described 2012 as a ‘challenging’ year, following the company reporting a pre-tax profit of £12.6m.
However, yesterday’s ABC figures confirm that the company is seeing a rise in terms of digital, with over 11 million visitors to its site, including the Scotsman, Yorkshire Evening Post and Sunderland Echo.