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Profitable stuff: Haymarket Publishing has moved back into the black
Profitable stuff: Haymarket Publishing has moved back into the black

Haymarket Publishing back in profit

This article is more than 12 years old
Directors received more than £4m remuneration in 2010 as privately owned company posted £5.1m pre-tax profit

Michael Heseltine's Haymarket Publishing has bounced back to a pre-tax profit of £5.1m last year, after reporting a loss in 2009.

The highest-paid director at the company, which is run by executive chairman Rupert Heseltine, was £2.25m in 2010 according to a Companies House filing. This compares with £1.3m awarded to the unnamed highest-paid director in 2009.

Overall the directors of Haymarket, publisher of titles including Stuff, Autocar, PR Week and Campaign, took home a combined total of £4.2m last year – up from £2.1m in 2009.

Haymarket Publishing reported a 3.9% year-on-year increase in group turnover to £234.7m in the year to the end of December.

Turnover in the UK, which accounts for 67% of total group turnover, grew marginally to £154m.

Pre-tax losses narrowed from £5.9m in 2009 to just £77,000 last year.

The US also increased revenues marginally to £42.5m, while pre-tax profits grew 41.5% to £2.84m.

The "other countries" operations, which includes businesses in Australia, Germany, Hong Kong and India, boosted revenue by 16% to £34m.

Pre-tax profits surged from just £232,000 in 2009 to £2.4m last year.

However, the company still has a significant level of net debt. Net debt widened over the course of the year from £115.5m on 1 January 2010 to £123.6m at 31 December.

Borrowing costs increased by £8m and the company paid out £10.4m in interest.

The company said trading in the first half of the year has been in line with expectations, although certain areas of the group remain under pressure, and that directors are cautiously optimistic that it can post a better financial performance for 2011.

The privately-owned company, which was forced to mortgage family properties to survive the debts the company carried into the 2009 recession, reported a pre-tax loss of £3.9m in 2009.

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