NZ market looking up, says APN chief

APN News & Media chief executive Brendan Hopkins. Photo / Richard Robinson.

APN News & Media chief executive Brendan Hopkins says the New Zealand economy is showing signs of life, with the advertising market improving and trading conditions beginning to look more like those from the days before the worst of the financial meltdown hit last year.

APN - which publishes the Herald - yesterday announced a 50 per cent fall in net profit to A$36.1 million ($44.2 million), before exceptional items, for the six months to the end of June. Revenue fell 18 per cent to A$516.7 million. The company will not pay a dividend for the six-month period.

Hopkins said the bottom-line number was disappointing but the overall result was satisfactory when viewed in the context of the global economy.

"Obviously we're not happy with what is happening in our markets," Hopkins said. "But we are starting to see some positive signs, particularly in New Zealand."

A pick-up in the housing market was flowing through to real estate advertising and for the past six weeks or so earnings were tracking ahead of the same period a year earlier.

"We look at our forward book all the time and we can see out in the four-to-eight-week range.

"There is no doubt that September is better and October is looking similar to 2007."

The general pattern of trading, which was decimated by the financial crisis, was now trending more towards 2007, he said.

Of the APN divisions, outdoor advertising took the biggest hit with earnings down 77 per cent on the same period last year.

New Zealand publishing and New Zealand radio businesses also fell sharply during the period with earnings for both down by 47 per cent.

In response to the slowdown the business had done well to reduce costs, Hopkins said.

New Zealand Publishing's costs had fallen 14 per cent and the company as a whole reported a decrease of 10 per cent.

APN shares closed steady at $2.18 on the NZX yesterday.