Guardian Media Ltd (GML) recorded after-tax profit of $44.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2013, an increase of 26 per cent compared with the company's performance in 2012.GML chairman, Grenfell Kissoon, in a statement accompanying the published results, said that the 2013 revenue of $210 million was the highest in the company's history.
"The key factors contributing to this growth were the emergence of CNC3 as the leading television station in the market, the continued dominance of our radio network, the improved reach of our newspaper through the introduction of new products, and increased revenue from the unprecedented four elections in the year," said Kissoon, in the chairman's statement.The GML chairman also said that the company was targeting further investments in the near future to continue to expand the media house's business.
GML's net profit margin increased from 19 per cent in 2012 to 21.3 per cent in 2013.GML also experienced a seven per cent increase in its total assets, which ended the year at $393 million and retained cash and cash equivalents of $135 million at the end of 2013, an increase of six per cent over the previous year.In an interview, GML managing director, Gabriel Faria, said the company was proud that it has established a reputation as a leader in innovation in the market.
"We are proud to be the oldest media organisation in the country (97 years), but we are even prouder to be the media company leading the change in this rapidly evolving industry. Our multi-platform media business, spanning print, radio, TV and online, ensures that our audiences have the information and entertainment they want when they want it," said Faria.
He added that the company invested heavily in the development and acquisition of programming to satisfy its audiences needs and made capital investments in all of its media platforms to ensure that the physical infrastructure was in place to drive the future growth of the business.
He said the company "firmly believes that quality, independent journalism is the backbone of any media organisation...Our job is to ask the questions that often people don't want asked. We strive to be as accurate and fair-minded in our reporting as possible and we have set up the processes to ensure this happens."
As a result of the company's performance, the GML board last week approved a final dividend of $0.42, bringing the total dividend for 2013 to $0.60, an increase of nine per cent over the $0.55 declared in 2012.The company paid out 53.6 per cent of its net income as a dividend. This means that the company has a dividend yield of three per cent and dividend cover of 1.86.With an earnings per share of $1.12 at the end of 2013, GML is currently trading at a PE ratio of 17.63.
GML is a publicly listed company whose majority shareholder is the ANSA McAL group.