YouGov chief: 2015 vote will be tough to call
ONLINE pollster YouGov, which accurately forecast the Scottish referendum result in its election-night poll, said the outcome of next year’s general election would be far less certain.
“The general election next year is going to be the most interesting one we’ve had for a long time, it’s about as unforecastable as anything with Ukip and all the other variations in the market,” chief executive Stephan Shakespeare told City A.M.
Meanwhile, YouGov yesterday reported a 51 per cent fall in profits to £1.5m for the year ended 31 July, largely due to the impact of amortisation and acquisition costs.
“On a statutory basis, you’ve got the effects of having to account for acquisitions that we made… There’s about £1m in charges that have gone through the profit and loss accounts, which is essentially what we’ll end up paying out to people for the business,” YouGov finance chief Alan Newman told City A.M., adding that on an adjusted basis, profits rose 12 per cent to £7.7m during the period.
YouGov’s revenue climbed eight per cent to £67.4m while current trading was in line with expectations. Its revenue from data products and services soared by 30 per cent and now amounts to 29 per cent of the total.
“We’re very happy about these results which show that the strategy we’ve laid out very clearly about doubling down on data products and services is the right one and it’s delivering very strongly,” added Shakespeare.
YouGov’s shares slipped nearly one per cent yesterday, to close down at 100p.