OSLO, Norway, Aug. 10, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- Findexa:
- Norwegian media company Findexa recorded strong growth in its online business during the second quarter of 2005, with revenues up 24%.
- Year to date total revenues were NOK 413 million compared with NOK 416 million in the same period last year.
- Lower costs and increased efficiencies contributed to an increase in earnings with second quarter EBITDA at NOK 213 million, NOK 2 million up on the same period last year.
- A dividend of NOK 0.72 per share has been declared for the second quarter in line with Findexa's high-yielding dividend policy.
Commenting on the results, Cornel Riklin, Chief Executive Officer, said: "We are pleased with the overall performance during the period. Despite a further decline in offline revenues, it was encouraging to see an overall increase in earnings.
"We continued to make good progress in implementing our strategy of repositioning Findexa. The performance of our online business was very strong.
"Costs are under control and we continued to make efficiency gains across the business yielding a positive result in the period."
The second quarter was also positive in usage terms. The gulesider.no site saw continued success with the number of users during the period rising by 43.7 per cent compared with the same period of last year. Meanwhile, usage of the Gule Sider printed directory increased by 11.4 per cent from the first quarter of 2005 and was up 6.2 per cent on the prior year. Overall usage of the Gule Sider brand rose by 18.1 per cent compared with the same period last year.
Online revenues totalled NOK 56 million in the second quarter, an improvement of NOK 11 million from April-June last year. Findexa is Norway's leading provider of commercial search services with gulesider.no the country's top-ranking commercial search web site. The site is also in the top-six of all Norwegian web sites independent of category (source: TNS Metrix).
Findexa has maintained its market-leading position in online services despite an increase in competition from both existing and new players, some supported by intensive marketing and advertising. To maintain its position, Findexa plans to launch during the coming months several new services on gulesider.no including classified advertising. Additionally, the recently announced C2C portal and a separate websearch service are also due to be launched this year.
Findexa is paying a dividend of NOK 0.72 per share, a cash distribution of NOK 146 million. At yesterday's closing share price of NOK 26.30, this represents an annualised dividend yield of 11%.
Facts about Findexa
Findexa is one of Norway's leading media companies and the largest Norwegian directory publisher. Its main brands are Gule Sider(R), Telefonkatalogen(TM), Ditt Distrikt(R) and BizKit(R). The brands are distributed in the form of printed directories, internet services, SMS, on CD-Rom and via the Telefonkatalogen(TM) 1880 directory assistance service.
The company had revenues of NOK 1,727 million in 2004 and EBITDA of NOK 776 million.
Findexa was listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange on 25 May 2004.
For further information, visit www.findexa.no.
The full report including tables can be downloaded from the following link: http://hugin.info/133752/R/1005561/154911.pdf