Business News
Gannett Co., Inc. Announces Anticipated Third Quarter Earnings
Tuesday 29. September 2009 - Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI) announced today certain anticipated third quarter results:
The company expects third quarter non-GAAP earnings per diluted share to be between $0.39 and $0.42, excluding special charges.
The special charges, which relate principally to various facility consolidations and workforce restructuring, are expected to total approximately $0.11 to $0.14 per diluted share. Including these special charges, earnings per diluted share are expected to be between $0.25 and $0.31.
Net income attributable to Gannett, excluding special charges, is anticipated to range between $93 million and $100 million for the quarter. After-tax special charges will range from $26 million to $32 million.
Operating cash flow (a non-GAAP measure defined as operating income plus depreciation, amortization and non-cash special charges) is expected to be between $241 million and $252 million in the third quarter.
Gannett expects to report total quarterly revenues of between $1.307 billion and $1.320 billion.
Total debt at the end of the third quarter was approximately $3.31 billion versus $3.51 billion at the end of the second quarter. Since year-end, our debt balance has declined approximately $504 million. The companys senior leverage ratio under its credit agreements is expected to be in the range of 3.04x to 3.07x at the end of the third quarter, significantly below the required ceiling of 3.5x. The company believes its leverage ratio will be below this ceiling for the remainder of 2009.
The above amounts are subject to the finalization of the companys third quarter results. Current forecast ranges for key results for the third quarter of 2009 are presented in the attached tables with comparable results for the third quarter of 2008.
“In the third quarter, the company continued to successfully navigate through the economic headwinds both in the U.S. and UK. Although overall advertising revenue comparisons remain difficult, our third quarter year-over-year publishing comparisons improved again versus first and second quarter comparisons. Our broadcast comparisons reflect the almost total absence of Olympics and political advertising which were approximately $50 million last year during the third quarter, partially offset by the near tripling of retransmission fees this year. CareerBuilder and Digital segment revenues are expected to be lower for the quarter on a pro forma basis, consistent with year-over-year trends for the first two quarters of 2009,” said Gracia Martore, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.
“Our continued efforts to achieve efficiencies and further consolidations company-wide along with significantly lower newsprint expense resulted in another substantial decline in our operating expenses. As a result, we continue to generate substantial operating cash flow which enabled us to lower debt by about $195 million in the quarter.”