Fairfax half year profit plummets to $26.3m with publisher announcing share buyback

Fairfax1Fairfax Media has reported significant fall in revenues and net profit for the first half of the 2015 financial year, and has signalled it will undertake a share buyback that will see the publisher purchase up to 5 per cent over the next 12 months.

Today the publisher of newspapers including The Age and Sydney Morning Herald recorded a net profit after tax of $26.3m, well down on last year’s half yearly result of $86.4m with the numbers driven down by significant items including $38.3m in restructuring and redundancy charges, and $18.3m in asset impairment charges.

The company’s EBITDA – earning before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation – was down 8.7 per cent at $162.4m, while revenue was down 12.9 per cent to $943.3m from over $1bn a year ago.

In a statement, CEO Greg Hywood trumpeted investments being made in its Domain and events businesses saying: “This result is a solid outcome. It is the result that we had planned for. There are no surprises.

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