Auto Trader grows sales, earnings and profit in first year as a listed company

Revenue increased by 10 per cent to £281.6m in the 2016 financial year, up from £255.9m in 2015. Operating profit increased by 27 per cent to £169.6m, from £133.1m, and earnings per share grew to 12.67p per share, up from 0.85p per share.This is the first set of full-year results the company has reported since listing on the London Stock Exchange in March last year. The company got off to a good start when it floated, with shares up 13 per cent on the first day of trading – and the stock has continued to perform well since, hitting an all time high in November when the group announced its first dividend.

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UBM upbeat as large event growth offsets blips

The events organiser, which hopes to conclude the sale of its PR Newswire and Agility businesses in coming weeks, said performance since the start of the year had been in line with management expectations. Larger events continued to drive performance, most notably Game Developers Conference, MAGICVegas, Enterprise Connect, MD&M West and Hotelex/FineFoods, UBM said.

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Wall Street Journal digital only subscribers grew to 45% of base in Q3

News Corp press release: In a statement released with the earnings, the media firm said: “While we believe in the strength of our print properties, we are also investing energetically in the rapid pursuit of digital which is clearly evident in the transition at Dow Jones.

“At Dow Jones this quarter, digital accounted for more than 50% of total revenues for the first time, and digital-only subscribers at the Wall Street Journal grew to 893,000, representing nearly 45% of the base.”

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Havas Reports 3.4% Growth In Q1

Havas reported that its revenue grew 7.8% in the first quarter to 506 million euros (about $569 million at today’s exchange rate) with organic growth, which strips out the impact of currency fluctuations, acquisitions and asset sales, was 3.4%.

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Omnicom posts 3.8% organic growth in Q1

The strength of the U.S. dollar continued to suppress revenue growth at Omnicom Group in the first quarter: revenues worldwide were up just 0.9% to about $3.5 billion. The company said currency fluctuations in the first quarter cost it about $97 million in top line growth. Organic growth, which excludes the impact of currency fluctuations, acquisitions and asset sales, was better — up 3.8% globally and 4.5% in the North America market, which accounts for 61% of the company’s business

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