Ten Alps has issued a trading update highlighting it will miss market expectations and make a loss for the year. The loss is expected to be smaller than the prior year. There has been a continuation of problems at the Publishing unit and the business is now likely to make a loss in H2, albeit smaller than in H1. Whilst owned titles and events have been more robust the contract publishing has struggled with staffing and difficult contracts. The unit is being restructured and the group is in discussions to sell parts of the division. While the TV business has seen a pick up in commissioning following the industry wide hiatus, it has not happened quite as quickly as expected and this will mean a smaller than expected, but still very large, jump in profits YoY. The acquired Reef TV business has continued to trade ahead of plan. The smallest division, Communications, is trading on track. The net result is that we now expect a Group EBITDA loss of c£400k for FY16 subject to a satisfactory June. Provided restructuring of the Publishing business can be achieved and TV sees normal commissioning patterns the business looks capable of c£1m of EBITDA in FY17. At this stage (6 weeks before year end) we put our forecasts under review.
