PunaMusta Media Transforms Operating Result into Profit Despite Slight Turnover Decrease

PunaMusta Media has reported a tripling of its EBITDA for the period October-December. The company attributes this growth to an increase in turnover and operating income.

On Friday, PunaMusta Media released its financial results for the last quarter and the full year.

Although the company’s turnover fell slightly to 36.0 million euros in the last quarter, as compared to 38.4 million euros in the same period the previous year, it was still higher than the 36.5 million euros forecast by Inderes.

The EBITDA, however, showed significant growth, almost tripling from 1.1 million euros to 3.1 million euros, which was considerably higher than the 2.1 million euros expected by Inderes.

The operating profit also saw an improvement, turning positive at 0.7 million euros, as opposed to the negative 1.5 million euros reported the previous year.

The company’s profit per share improved slightly from -0.03 euros to -0.01 euros.

The total turnover for the year amounted to 133.9 million euros, slightly higher than the 133.5 million euros reported in 2022. The annual EBITDA was 9.1 million euros, a significant improvement from the 6.2 million euros recorded the previous year.

Despite these positive results, the company’s board has decided not to distribute any dividends.

PunaMusta Media predicts that its turnover and operating results will continue to improve in 2024, excluding the estimated capital gain of 10.2 million euros from the sale of its media business. In 2023, these figures were 116.2 million euros and -0.9 million euros respectively.

The company is currently undergoing significant changes, having announced in early February its plans to sell its media business to Keskisuomanai.

CEO Arttu Sallinen attributes the company’s improved profitability to its shift from product-oriented sales to a solution-oriented approach, even in the face of a decline in turnover. He notes that the last quarter of the year was particularly successful, with the EBITDA reaching a record 3.1 million euros.

The printing business of the company also showed clear improvement in profitability thanks to increased productivity and reduced energy and material costs, resulting in the EBITDA improving by 1.3 million euros to 2.0 million euros.

Throughout the year, the company has managed to improve the sales margin in its visibility business, leading to a clear improvement in profitability in the fourth quarter as the operating margin increased from 0.9 million euros to 1.1 million euros.

The EBITDA of the media business remained steady at 0.3 million euros. Despite focusing on growth in the digital business, weaker than expected demand for project business meant that the EBITDA remained at last year’s level of 0.0 million euros.