Daily Mirror publisher Reach PLC (LON:RCH) is “confident” that full-year profits will be in line with expectations as the integration of the Express & Star newspapers remains “on track”.
Trinity Mirror, as it was then known, agreed to buy out Richard Desmond’s Northern & Shell Group, which owned the Express & Star newspapers, for £127mln over the summer.
READ: Reach swings to a loss on regional impairment charges
Reach said today it is making “good progress” in bedding in the new addition, adding that it still expects to deliver cost savings of £2mln this year and at least £20mln a year by 2020.
Reflecting the merger, revenue in the third quarter grew 21%, although it actually fell 7% on a like-for-like basis.
Unsurprisingly, newspaper circulation and ad revenues are falling, with digital revenue the main growth driver.
The consensus among City analysts is that Reach will turn a pre-tax profit of between £132.1-133.9mln in 2018, and Reach told investors that it fully expects to meet that.
“I am pleased with the progress being made on the integration of Express & Star and remain confident that we will deliver at least £20mln of annual synergy savings by 2020,” said chief executive Simon Fox.
“Our continued focus on tightly managing costs and driving digital revenue continues to provide confidence that performance for the year will be in line with market expectations.”
Shares dipped 2.6% to 63.9p in early deals on Monday.