JEDDAH, 16 January 2007 — The Saudi Research and Marketing Group (SRMG) announced yesterday that it made a net profit of SR261 million last year, registering a 44-percent increase compared to 2005.
“As a result (of an increase in profits) the profitability of SRMG shares rose by 44 percent reaching SR3.3 per share,” said an official statement issued by the group, the largest media company in the Middle East and publisher of Arab News.
The company’s total revenues in 2006 grew by nine percent to SR1.159 billion compared to the previous year while total profits in 2006 amounted to SR467 million against SR399 million in 2005, with a growth rate of 17 percent.
Operation profits rose by 18 percent from SR207 million in 2005 to SR244 million last year. The group posted a fourth quarter profit of SR68 million in 2006 compared to SR43 million during the same period in 2005, the statement said.
Prince Faisal Bin Salman, chairman of SRMG, expressed his delight over the company’s excellent financial performance last year.
“We made this achievement as a result of the blessing of God as well as the efforts of an integrated team of workers,” he said.
Prince Faisal hoped that SRMG would achieve better results during the current fiscal year.
“We have set out short- and long-term strategic plans and started implementing them to take the company to new heights of progress,” he added. The SRMG strategy was outlined at the group’s first board meeting following the IPO (initial public offering) in April last year. The strategy entails divesting from or selling loss-making ventures and restructuring the flagship entities of the group with an emphasis on improving quality and performance.
SRMG’s restructuring has seen the group last year relocate some of its London-based publications to Dubai, notably its three women’s magazines — Hia, Al-Jamila and Sayidaty. Its English-language flagship, Arab News, launched a UAE edition in Dubai last year. SRMG publishes 15 newspapers and magazines, with a total readership of seven million people around the world.
The group’s board of directors has approved the sale of 30 percent of its wholly owned affiliate, Al-Madina Printing & Publishing Company, in an IPO targeted for early 2007.
“We’ll use the returns from the IPO to expand the group’s activities, either through entering into new investment projects or by further strengthening the group,” explained Prince Faisal.