Reach plc announced a full year dividend of 7.34 pence per share comprised interim dividend of 2.88 pence per share and proposed final dividend of 4.46 pence per share. The final dividend, which is subject to approval by shareholders at the Annual General Meeting on 2 May 2024, will be paid on 31 May 2024 to shareholders on the register at 10 May 2024. An interim dividend for 2023 of 2.88 pence per share was paid on 22 September 2023 (2022: 2.88 pence per share). In proposing a final dividend of 4.46 pence per share for 2023 (2022: 4.46 pence per share), the Board has considered all investment requirements and its funding commitments to the defined benefit pension schemes.
Other financial highlights include:
Revenue declined 5.4% to £568.6m, Print revenue of £438.8m (FY22: £448.6m) down 2% and Digital revenue of £127.4m (FY22: £149.8m) down 15%
Strong print circulation performance £312.5m (FY22: £307.7m) - revenue up by 2% and volumes in line with their historical print volumes. Print advertising declined by 12% to £76.6m (FY22: £86.9m), outperforming volume trends
Data-driven digital revenues down 4% (FY23: £55.3m), continue to outperform the market driven by a material increase in yields and now represent 43% of total digital revenues (FY22: 38%)
Other digital revenues which includes open market programmatically driven advertising declined by 24% due to the sector-wide decline of platform referred traffic to newsbrands (down 24%) alongside declining open market yields (down 25%)
Maintained their strong adjusted operating profit margin of 17.0% (FY 2022: 17.6%)
Highly cash generative with adjusted operating cash flow of £91.9m (FY 2022: £92.1m) and closing net debt of £10.1m
