Today was an important day for RCS which, in addition to having presented the accounts for the last six months, is deciding on the future composition of the board of directors that will lead the group after the change of ownership.
"I'm going to accept the appointment as director" of the publishing company. The announcement was made by Urbano Cairo himself, who arrived at the headquarters of RCS Mediagroup, in whose board he was co-opted. "Once the Board of Directors is over, I will tell you about other entrances – continued the patron of La7 – I confirm that I am entering, I am going for this".
There is no official announcement about the directors, even if according to the rumors of the last few hours, three out of nine members should leave the board. With this resignation, Cairo and his men would enter the board before the full renewal of the board which will be voted on during the September meeting. As reported by Reuters (which cites a source informed about the facts) it is possible that the CEO Laura Cioli, the president Maurizio Costa and the director Gerardo Braggiotti will resign.
At the end of the board Cairo became president and CEO of RCS and has lived up to expectations: "There is a lot to work on and quickly".
As for the financial statements, Rcs announces the return to profit after 14 quarters, recording a positive result of 2016 million euros between April and June 19,9 compared to a loss of 60,2 million at the end of June 2015. In the six months, the group reports a loss of 2,1 million against the red of 95,4 in the reference six months of 2015.
Consolidated revenues in the first half fell by 2,9% to 504,1 million (519,3 million in the first half of 2015) Ebitda before charges and non-recurring income rose to 40,2 million (11,7 million) and that after non-recurring income and charges improved to 33,9 million (4,5 million).
"I am proud of the great work done in recent months thanks to the passion and commitment of all my colleagues - commented the CEO Laura Cioli - We have stabilized the financial and equity situation of the Company, launched the strategic relaunch of this historic publishing group, increased profitability from 2% to 8% in the first half alone and closed the second quarter with a profit, for the first time since 2012”.
Financial debt stood at 422,4 million, from 486,7 at the end of 2015, exceeding the forecasts of the 2016-2018 Business Plan for the first half of 2016, mainly thanks to the sale and deconsolidation of the Books Area. The company reports that the activities relating to the takeover bid/takeover bid resulted in unforeseeable non-recurring charges, of which 4,2 million euro, equal to approximately 90% of the total, already accounted for in the first half.
As regards Cairo Communication, which recently won the battle to acquire Rcs, the group closed the first six months of the year with consolidated revenues of 133,5 million euros, a slight increase compared to the 133 of the six months baseline for 2015. Margins were down compared to the figure for the first half of 2015: ebitda amounted to 7,9 million (against 8,1 million) and ebit 3,1 million (4,5 million ).
Consolidated net profit amounted to 4 million euro compared to 5,5 million in the first six months of 2015. During the period, the magazine publishing sector, despite incurring launch costs of 1,2 million euro, continued to achieve positive results realizing an ebitda of 6,3 million (7,7 million) and an ebit of 5,7 million (7,2 million). The television publishing sector (La7 and La7d) achieved a positive EBITDA of around 47 thousand euros against -1,5 million in the first half of 2015.
In the half year, the publishing group continued its growth strategy with the launch of the fortnightly 'Nuovo and Nuovo TV Cucina' (approximately 122 thousand copies on average in the first 12 issues) in January and of 'Enigmistica Più' (approximately 179 thousand average copies in the first 11 issues), a weekly of games and pastimes which marks Cairo Editore's entry into the interesting puzzle sector in the month of April.
In Piazza Affari, the Rcs share is hit by sales. The shares of the publishing group are currently down 6,7% at 0,746 euro.
