L’altro giorno Local Radio ha annunciato pessimi risultati per il 2008, con una perdita superiore ai 5,5 milioni di sterline. Colpa di entrate pubblicitarie in forte calo a fronte di costi fissi rimasti immutati, dice il piccolo gruppo privato che nei mesi scorsi aveva già annunciato l’intenzione di dismettere la sua partecipazione in JazzFM, emittente Jazz che opera solo su alcune frequenze del DAB in Scozia e nel Galles, dopo un esordio in FM a Londra. Ora la holding finanziaria cerca di raccogliere soldi ricapitalizzando per 1 milione e mezzo di sterline, somma che verrà in gran parte sottoscritta con il denaro dalle tasche dei principali azionisti. Chissà se basterà.
Local Radio sounds alarm
THE operator of 20 local radio stations has warned it could go under if plans to raise £1.5m from shareholders fail.
Reporting a £5.6m pre- tax loss for the full year, the Local Radio Company said it needed the additional resources to restructure the business.
The company, which runs stations including Silk FM in Cheshire, has already announced plans to sell its JazzFM business.
Local Radio said that although many of its stations were leaders in their markets, spending on advertising has dried up, while the firm’s costs remain fixed.
Revenues from the group’s local markets are forecast to fall by less than 6% on a like-for-like basis in the first quarter of 2009.
This decline would be an “above market performance”, Local Radio said.
Its proposed plan is to raise £1.51m from an open offer to shareholders of up to 600 million shares at 0.25p each.
