DMGT's £65m beats forecasts

DAILY Mail and General Trust, owner of This Is Money, beat market forecasts when it unveiled first half pre-tax profits before goodwill amortisation and exceptionals down 9% at £65.2m.

Analysts had been expecting profits of between £51m and £63m. Turnover for the group, which also owns the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, the London Evening Standard and Northcliffe regional newspapers, fell 1% to £950m. Ad revenue at Associated Newspapers, the national titles, fell 15% in the six months to March but Northcliffe's rose 1.6%.

The group said the downturn in advertising had less effect on titles which were retail-led such as the Daily Mail and was most severely felt at titles which rely more on recruitment and financial advertising. Earnings fell 13% to 10.5p a share and the interim dividend is up 7% to 2.95p.

The group said UK consumer businesses saw buoyant ad revenue in March but this had not continued. It added: 'We still see no reason for any substantial improvement in advertising revenues over the rest of 2002.'