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New Media Announces Strong Second Quarter 2017 Results and Dividend of $0.35 per Common ShareNew Media Investment Group Inc. ("New Media" or the "Company", NYSE: NEWM) today reported its financial results for the second quarter ended June 25, 2017. Second Quarter 2017 Financial Summary
Second Quarter 2017 & Subsequent Business Highlights
*For definitions and reconciliations of Non-GAAP Reporting measures, please refer to the Non-GAAP Financial Measures Note and reconciliations below. ? Comparison to prior year reported Propel Marketing revenue. Michael E. Reed, New Media President and Chief Executive Offer, commented, "We were pleased with the direction of our second quarter operating results. We saw an improvement in the trends for most of the important segments of our business. Our organic same store revenue trend decline improved to (5.4)% after being (6.2)% the previous two quarters. Further, as we forecasted on our first quarter earnings call, As Adjusted EBITDA and Free Cash Flow both showed growth over the prior year, reversing the declines we have seen the past few quarters. We feel very good about the initiatives we have in place across the Company and that they will positively impact future revenue, costs, and cash flow. "Our small and medium business solutions platform was rebranded to UpCurve this quarter, better reflecting the goal we have for our products and services to help SMBs grow. UpCurve continues to show strong growth in terms of both revenues and customers. Based on our internal forecasts for the third quarter, UpCurve is now close to $90 million a year in revenue run rate, and we believe it will be a rapidly growing cash flow contributor as we continue to scale." Mr. Reed went on to say, "We were pleased to get a few deals done in the second quarter and subsequent, closing on the sale of the Medford, Oregon Mail Tribune for $15 million at a very attractive multiple, and acquiring the local media business in Pennsylvania from the Calkins family for $17.5 million. Even more importantly, we feel very good about our pipeline for acquisitions for the back half of 2017. "We have also had some other positive developments since our last report including a $100 million share repurchase program that we instituted. We bought back over 390,000 shares during the quarter at a weighted average price of $12.77 per share. We also recently completed an amendment to our existing credit facility, extending the tenor of the term loan by two years to July 2022, increasing the size of the term loan by $20 million, and increasing our accordion to $80 million. Finally, this week the board authorized a second quarter dividend of $0.35 per share. "Our optimism for the second half of the year and beyond is beginning to be validated by the progress in our performance that we saw during the second quarter. With available liquidity of $194.3 million at the end of the second quarter, we believe we are well positioned to deliver attractive future returns for shareholders." Second Quarter 2017 Financial Results New Media recorded total revenues of $322.9 million for the quarter, up 2.6% to prior year and a decrease of 5.4% on an organic same store basis. Traditional Print Advertising decreased 12.3% on an organic same store basis, an improvement from the first quarter trend, but still reflecting the challenged environment for print advertising. Digital revenue closed at $34.8 million, an increase of 9.0% to prior year. UpCurve generated $17.3 million in revenue, an increase of 44.4% to the prior year and now comprises 52.2% of total digital revenue. Circulation revenue, one of our larger and more stable revenue categories, was flat on an organic same store basis. Commercial Print, Distribution, and Events revenue increased 1.0% to the prior year on an organic same store basis. New Media continues to be committed to finding ways to operate more efficiently and reduce our expenses to preserve cash flows. In the second quarter, Organic Same Store Expenses decreased 6.3% to the prior year, which was more than enough to offset the decline in organic same store revenues, thus driving the increase in As Adjusted EBITDA and Free Cash Flow. Operating loss was $6.5 million and Net loss was $21.7 million, both of which were negatively impacted by approximately $36.6 million of non-cash charges, primarily $27.4 million of intangible impairments and $8.0 million of book tax expense. Excluding these items, the Company's result was $14.9 million in Net income. The impairment is calculated at the level of each of our four reporting units, where two units have impairment and in total there is more than $175 million excess of fair value over book value. As Adjusted EBITDA was $43.3 million, which is up 8.0% to prior year and Free Cash Flow was $33.7 million, which is up 15.8% to prior year. Second Quarter 2017 Dividend New Media's Board of Directors declared a second quarter 2017 cash dividend of $0.35 per share of common stock. The dividend is payable on August 17, 2017 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on August 9, 2017. The declaration and payment of any dividends are at the sole discretion of the Board of Directors, which may decide to change the Company's dividend policy at any time. Additional Information For additional information that management believes to be useful for investors, please refer to the presentation posted on the Investor Relations section of New Media's website, www.newmediainv.com and the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K, which will be available on the Company's website. Nothing on our website is included or incorporated by reference herein. Earnings Conference Call New Media's management will host a conference call on Thursday, July 27, 2017 at 10:00 A.M. Eastern Time. A copy of the earnings release will be posted to the Investor Relations section of New Media's website, www.newmediainv.com. All interested parties are welcome to participate on the live call. The conference call may be accessed by dialing 1-855-319-1124 (from within the U.S.) or 1-703-563-6359 (from outside of the U.S.) ten minutes prior to the scheduled start of the call; please reference "New Media Second Quarter Earnings Call." A simultaneous webcast of the conference call will be available to the public on a listen-only basis at www.newmediainv.com. Please allow extra time prior to the call to visit the website and download any necessary software required to listen to the internet broadcast. A telephonic replay of the conference call will also be available approximately three hours following the call's completion through 11:59 P.M. Eastern Time on Thursday, August 10, 2017 by dialing 1-855-859-2056 (from within the U.S.) or 1-404-537-3406 (from outside of the U.S.); please reference access code "73796611." About New Media Investment Group Inc. New Media supports small to mid-size communities by providing locally-focused print and digital content to its consumers and premier marketing and technology solutions for our small and medium businesses partners. The Company is one of the largest publishers of locally based print and online media in the United States as measured by our 125 daily publications. As of June 25, 2017, the Company operates in over 555 markets across 36 states. New Media's portfolio of products, as of June 25, 2017, include over 630 community publications and over 550 websites, serve more than 225,000 business advertising accounts, and reaches over 21 million people on a weekly basis. For more information regarding New Media and to be added to our email distribution list, please visit www.newmediainv.com. Same Store and Organic Same Store Revenues Same store results take into account material acquisitions and divestitures of the Company by adjusting prior year performance to include or exclude financial results as if the Company had owned or divested a business for the comparable period. The results of several acquisitions ("tuck-in acquisitions") were funded from the Company's available cash and are not considered material. Organic same store revenues are same store revenues adjusted to remove non-material acquisitions and non-material divestitures, and to adjust for Commercial Print revenues that are now intercompany. Non-GAAP Financial Measures The Company strongly urges stockholders and other interested persons not to rely on any single financial measure to evaluate its business. In addition, because As Adjusted and Organic Same Store Expenses, Adjusted EBITDA, As Adjusted EBITDA, and Free Cash Flow are not measures of financial performance under GAAP and are susceptible to varying calculations, these non-GAAP measures, as presented in this press release, may differ from and may not be comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies. As Adjusted and Organic Same Store Expenses As Adjusted Expenses are calculated as reported revenue less As Adjusted EBITDA. Organic Same Store Expenses are calculated as As Adjusted Expenses adjusted to remove expenses related to non-material acquisitions and non-material divestitures. New Media's management believes this metric is a useful indicator of cost reduction performance, as it compares the level of expenses in the current period versus the prior period for the same assets. Adjusted EBITDA, As Adjusted EBITDA, and Free Cash Flow The Company defines Adjusted EBITDA as net income (loss) from continuing operations before income tax expense (benefit), interest/financing expense, depreciation and amortization, and non-cash impairments. The Company defines As Adjusted EBITDA as Adjusted EBITDA before transaction and project costs, merger and acquisition related costs, integration and reorganization costs, gain/loss on sale or disposal of assets, non-cash items such as non-cash compensation, and Adjusted EBITDA from non-wholly owned subsidiaries. The Company defines Free Cash Flow as As Adjusted EBITDA less capital expenditures, cash taxes, interest paid, and pension payments. Management's Use of Adjusted EBITDA, As Adjusted EBITDA, and Free Cash Flow Adjusted EBITDA, As Adjusted EBITDA, and Free Cash Flow are not measures of financial performance under GAAP and should not be considered in isolation or as alternatives to income from operations, net income (loss), cash flow from continuing operating activities or any other measure of performance or liquidity derived in accordance with GAAP. New Media's management believes these non-GAAP measures, as defined above, are useful to investors for the following reasons:
We use Adjusted EBITDA, As Adjusted EBITDA, and Free Cash Flow as measures of our deployed revenue generating assets between periods on a consistent basis. We believe As Adjusted EBITDA and Free Cash Flow measure our financial performance and help identify operational factors that management can impact in the short term, mainly our operating cost structure and expenses. We exclude mergers and acquisition, transaction, and project related costs such as diligence activities and new financing related costs because they represent costs unrelated to the day-to-day operating performance of the business that management can impact in the short term. We consider the loss on early extinguishment of debt to be financing related costs associated with interest expense or amortization of financing fees, which by definition are excluded from Adjusted EBITDA. Such charges are incidental to, but not reflective of our day-to-day operating performance of the business that management can impact in the short term. Forward-Looking Statements Certain items in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding our ability to execute on our operational strategy, expected revenue trends, including expectations for revenue growth, and our ability to continue to grow our dividend and deliver shareholder returns, pursuing and completing future acquisitions and strategic opportunities, the timing and availability of such opportunities, the ability to source and identify such opportunities and the benefits associated with such opportunities, growing our digital business and revenues including UpCurve, realizing revenue from our pipeline of commercial print contracts, diversifying our revenue streams away from traditional print media, our ability to lower expenses including by leveraging our scale, our ability to identify, implement, and realize expense savings and our ability to grow Free Cash Flow and our ability to repurchase shares pursuant to the announced share repurchase program. These statements are based on management's current expectations and beliefs and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, such as continued declines in traditional revenue categories, economic conditions in the markets in which we operate, competition from other media companies, the possibility of insufficient interest in our digital business, technological developments in the media sector, an ability to source acquisition opportunities with an attractive risk-adjusted return profile, inadequate diligence of acquisition targets, and difficulties integrating and reducing expenses, including at our newly acquired businesses. These and other risks and uncertainties could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements, many of which are beyond our control. The Company can give no assurance that its expectations will be attained. Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements contained in this press release. For a discussion of some of the risks and important factors that could cause actual results to differ from such forward-looking statements, see the risks and other factors detailed from time to time in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Furthermore, new risks and uncertainties emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for the Company to predict or assess the impact of every factor that may cause its actual results to differ from those contained in any forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release. The Company expressly disclaims any obligation to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in the Company's expectations with regard thereto or change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any statement is based.
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