Revenues top $1bn for SCMP in 2012

SCMP Group has announced an 8% jump in full year revenues for 2012, exceeding HK$1 billion the first time since 2008.The result was driven largely by a strong performing magazine division, namely the acquisition of Elle magazine and its portfolio of lifestyle magazines including Cosmopolitan, Harper's Bazaar and CosmoGIRL!, which grew by 13%.Net profit for magazines grew 23% to $37.3 million.SCMP Group yesterday revealed it paid $75.1 million to acquire rights to publish Elle."The acquisition of Elle has been very positive for the group in terms of revenue," the company said in its full year report.While overall revenue for the group was up, newspaper profits and earnings from normal operations dropped.Revenues for the newspaper division dropped $5.6 million or 1% to $773.6 million in 2012, alongside a net profit decrease of 19% to $97.5 million, compared to 2011.Revenue from advertising and marketing services on newspaper also decreased 2%, largely due to a "significant drop" in the number of IPOs during the year.Nonetheless, investment on new digital business will continue in 2013.SCMP said during 2013 it will continue to strengthen its portfolio of digital and print products."Our readership and circulation figures for our core newspaper and magazine products remain strong and we are able to leverage the strength of our brands to grow new sources of revenue in events, custom publishing, new platform editions and other related products."SCMPChinese.com, its first foray into a Chinese language news site, is scheduled to launch in the second half of the year."SCMPChinese.com finally gives our company a meaningful product to reach a vast Chinese audience already hungry for our content, as evidenced by the demand for Greater China Outlook, our current Chinese language sub-section in scmp.com," the company said."We enter 2013 with a well prepared and digitally savvy talent pool."Anticipating the financial uncertainty of the past few years will continue into 2013, the company declared to remain cautiously optimistic on the economy and continue to strengthen its product portfolio and explore boarder revenue sources to maintain a solid performance.