Lord Heseltine has taken full control of Haymarket Publishing, owner of magazines including Stuff, Autocar and FourFourTwo, which has reported a pre-tax loss of almost £8m in its latest financial results.
The company, which was co-founded by Heseltine in 1957 and renamed Haymarket in 1964, made a pre-tax loss of £7.6m in the 18 months to the end of June last year.
Haymarket last reported financials for the 2011 calendar year, making a profit of £7.2m, and has published a one-off batch of 18 months of results after changing its financial reporting period to a June year end.
"In this reporting period … Haymarket also embarked on a fundamental reorganisation that has involved non-core disposals, office moves, a debt reduction programme and capital restructuring," said Heseltine, the company chairman, in the group's Companies House filing. "This has included a change to our shareholder structure, with the Heseltine family assuming 100% ownership interests in the group."
According to the filing, the company worked out a deal to pay a final £16m owed to Simon Tindall, who joined in 1959, for his family stake in the business.
Haymarket was due to pay the remaining £16m in instalments until January 2016.
However using £4m of the £27m in profits made from the sale of the company's offices in Hammersmith, and the issue of £6m of new preference shares to Heseltine, Tindall and his family's settled for a one-off payment of £10m.
Overall the company made revenues of £318m in the 18-month period, which when looked at on a monthly basis is broadly in line with the rate reported in the last published annual results.
Group operating profit was £8.6m, well down on the £18.7m in the previous company filing.
The UK business made £203.8m in revenues, 64% of total, and a loss of £9.7m.
Haymarket's operations in the US made £66.3m in revenue, 21% of the total, and a profit of £5m.
Heseltine said that the company delivered a "solid operating performance and creditable underlying profit … in spite of volatile advertising conditions and major changes in media consumption habits".
The results were impacted by staff cuts "in response to weak economic activity" with restructuring costs hitting £1.4m.
There was also a charge of £7.5m in "asset impairments" on "publishing rights that reflect the continued weakness and uncertain outlook in the group's print portfolio".
Staff costs were £132m, with Haymarket's headcount at 1,857 as of the end of June last year.
Directors received £4m, with the unnamed highest paid director receiving £1.038m. A dividend of £2m was paid to shareholders.
The business has managed to slash its debt burden, which in the past had put the company in a precarious position, by £30m to £97m as at 30 June.
"Haymarket has entered the current financial year with a strengthened balance sheet," said Heseltine. "Including net indebtedness reduced by one-third and with encouraging signs of growth in digital revenues, live events and key markets, such as the UK and US."
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