UTV weathers the storm and hikes dividend

30th Aug 2011 08:11

Northern Irish broadcaster, UTV Media, said it had outperformed in the first half of the year and hiked its dividend.Pre-tax profits for the first half of 2011 were up by 15% to £10.9m with earnings per share up by 16% to 8.64p.Based on the results the company proposed an interim dividend of 1.5p, up from 1p a year earlier.UTV said television operating profit more than doubled in the six months, increasing to £3.1m from £1.4m in 2010. However, radio and new media operating profits both slipped to £8.8m (2010 : £9.9m) and £0.9m (2010 : £1.0m) respectively.The firm said it expected third quarter advertising revenue would be up 3% compared to the year before.Chairman, John McGuckian, struck a cautious note saying it was difficult to be optimistic in the midst of uncertainty surrounding growth in both domestic and global economies."Nevertheless, [the] company continues to make steady progress and operating budgets are being met and often exceeded," he said. "Robust cash flow management has significantly strengthened the balance sheet and our expectation is that our net debt/EBITDA ratio at the year end will be around 2 times."