TX Group loses significant sales and posts loss
The sharp drop in advertising revenues in the wake of the Corona pandemic caused TX Group to experience a marked drop in revenues and to be in the red for the full year 2020. On a positive note, the situation improved significantly in the second half of the year.
Sales of the broadly diversified media group, known for its Tages-Anzeiger or the Basel NewspaperThe TX Group announced on Thursday that its net profit for the full year 2020 decreased by a total of 13.3 percent to 935.2 million Swiss francs. The second half of the year was significantly better than the first six months, which were down almost 18 percent.
The TX Group also achieved a significant improvement in operating profit in the second six months. For the year as a whole, EBIT was still negative at 70.9 million, after a loss of 107.5 million was reported for the first half of the year. In addition to lower sales, operating profit was also impacted by the goodwill impairment of 85 million in the pay media business recognized in the half-year financial statements.
The bottom line was a net loss of 94.6 million compared to a profit of 97.8 million in the previous year.
As already announced in April on the occasion of the last Annual General Meeting, the Board of Directors proposes to the shareholders to waive a dividend for 2020. For 2019, 3.50 Swiss francs were paid out.
20 minutes with the largest drop in sales
The sharpest decline in sales for the year as a whole was again recorded in the 20 minutes combined commuter media. Here, revenues declined by 25.2 percent. Meanwhile, the Tamedia segment with its paid media (revenues -14.2 percent) was also heavily affected. The advertising marketer Goldbach benefited from a significant recovery in the second half of the year and was thus able to limit the loss of revenues to -7.6 percent, after a minus of 21.8 percent was recorded in the first half of the year. On an adjusted operating basis - i.e., excluding the effects of business combinations - all three divisions returned to the black, unlike after six months.
The TX Markets division, with its large classifieds platforms and marketplaces such as Jobcloud, Homegate and Ricardo, was much less affected by Corona. Sales here fell by 6.7 percent over the year as a whole. The adjusted EBIT margin fell to 33.7 percent from 37.9 percent.
There was a marked increase in the use of the Group's various media as a result of Corona. And the number of digital subscriptions also recorded a significant increase.
As usual, the management of TX Group does not provide an outlook for the current fiscal year 2021. (SDA)
