Australian media group APN reported full-year net profit rose 15 per cent on stronger advertising and tipped further earnings growth in the year ahead.
APN, which is 40.5 per cent owned by Independent News and Media, said its newspaper and radio businesses were off to a strong start in the new financial year and it would stick with its double-digit earnings growth target.
APN, which publishes 24 daily and 90 non-daily newspapers in Australasia, including the New Zealand Herald, said full-year net profit rose to 103.5 million Australian dollars ($79.6 million) from A$90.18 million a year ago - broadly in line with analyst forecasts.
Shares in APN, whose earnings have been boosted since it paid A$1.2 billion for New Zealand's biggest newspaper publisher Wilson & Horton in 2001, reversed early losses to trade up 0.5 per cent at A$3.88 in modestly firmer overall trade by midsession in Sydney.
Although newspaper publishing makes up around 70 per cent of APN earnings before interest and tax, the firm also ranks as the largest radio broadcaster in Australasia with interests in 12 Australian city radio stations and over 90 in New Zealand.
Debt for APN has declined around A$200 million from a year ago to its present A$825 million.