'Solid' Year So Far for Media Square

The Board of Directors of marcoms group Media Square plc - which owns market research agency Illuminas - has issued a statement announcing a solid start to the financial year with a return to operating profit in the first half of 2010.

The statement precedes a closed period prior to early November, when interim results for the six months to 31st August will be announced.

First half group revenue has risen by an unspecified amount with each month from January to June showing an operating profit, compared with a headline operating loss of £1.5m for first half 2009; and the Group is trading ahead of budget.

The statement says that existing client spending has stabilised and for the first time in three years there has been 'some small growth in net new business'. The Company secured a new three year banking facility in July but says that 'reducing the level of bank debt remains a high priority'.

At the beginning of last year the Group announced cost-cutting measures including headcount reduction of c.9%. The timing of the downturn was difficult for Media Square as it had only returned to profit the previous year after losses of £13.2m in 2007 results, and what then-Chairman Roger Parry described as a number of years of 'over-ambitious and over-rapid expansion'.

The Group remains cautious about the outlook for the second half of this year, traditionally its busier, and points to the particularly uncertain economic outlook in its key countries, the UK and US.

CEO Peter Reid says economic conditions 'remain challenging' but asserts that 'the Group has made considerable progress during H1 and is well placed to benefit from a sustained recovery in marketing budgets when it materialises.'

Web site: www.mediasquare.co.uk .