Software delays hit DMGT shares as costs spiral
DAILY Mail and General Trust (DMGT) disappointed the market yesterday by announcing further delays and higher costs associated with the launch of its risk management software business, RMS(one).
The publisher of the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday saw its shares plummet 6.69 per cent after it revealed the delays would trigger £5m in additional costs.
The costs are expected to send operating profit in DMGT’s RMS division to the bottom end of current market expectations of £45m to £50m this year.
“Following the revisions to the timing of RMS(one) releases and the anticipated phasing of client adoption, there will be a material impairment to the around £85m carrying value of the asset in the current financial year,” said DMGT in a trading update yesterday.
“A further update on the broader release plan will be made in early 2015,” it said, adding that a late 2015 rollout was being targeted.
Meanwhile revenues generated from DMGT’s MailOnline division rose 49 per cent to £53m during the 11 months to August, more than offsetting the £10m drop in advertising revenues from its print operations that amounted to £172m.
“MailOnline’s global monthly unique browsers in August stood at 180m, up 30 per cent on last year, and average global daily unique browsers were 11.4m, an increase of 26 per cent on last year,” the company said.
DMGT maintained its guidance for the full year results and said trading continued in line with expectations.
DMGT’s shares closed down at 760p following the news yesterday.