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Baltic Classifieds Group PLC on Thursday said it had its most successful year in the firm's history, though shares fell as it guided to a slower pace of revenue growth in the year ahead.
Baltic Classifieds shares fell 6.4% to 129.20 pence each in London on Thursday morning.
In the financial year that ended April 30, pretax profit rose 38% to €2.45 billion from €1.78 billion a year ago.
Annual revenue topped initial public offering guidance, rising 21% to €50.96 billion from €42.27 billion the year prior.
Its adjusted Ebitda margin for the year was 77.1%, down from 78.1% the year before as it noted public listed company costs and a higher inflation environment in the Baltics.
‘We estimate that the impact of the war in Ukraine amounted to around 1% of EBITDA margin, however this was concentrated around the first 4 weeks of the invasion,’ it added.
The West Sussex-based operator of online classified ad portals declared a 1.4 cents final dividend.
‘This year has been the busiest and most successful in Baltic Classifieds Group's history and a record year in terms of financial performance,’ said Chief Executive Officer Justinas Simkus.
In addition, the firm plans to return cash to shareholders through a buyback. ‘We expect the appropriate authorities to be in place following the annual general meeting for us to begin buying back our shares,’ it said.
‘The board will consider the allocation of excess cash towards reducing gross debt and to the share buyback programme at that time,’ Baltic said.
The company is targeting 15% revenue growth in 2023 and expects to maintain its adjusted Ebitda margin despite rising costs and high inflation.
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