Media intelligence group isentia has announced a slight increase in revenue for the first half of the 2017 financial year, but the results weren’t so good for its content marketing arm.
The company announced to shareholders this morning that overall revenue grew by 5 per cent to $79.6 million in the six months to 31 December, while its underlying profit was down 17 per cent to $12.4 million.
Revenue from iSentia’s content marketing business, King Content, fell 11 per cent year-on-year to $7.4 million due to the loss of a number of its clients, which resulted in an EBITDA loss of $2 million for the first half of FY17.
John Croll, CEO and managing director of iSentia, said the performance of its content marketing arm was “disappointing”.
“We have made a number of improvements to the content marketing business, including appointing Matt Stanton as the new CEO,” he said.
“However, our previous guidance for EBITDA breakeven for FY17 will not be achieved.”
On a brighter note for iSentia, its SaaS and valued-added services (VAS) businesses in Australia, New Zealand and Asia delivered revenue growth of 7 per cent, with VAS growth in ANZ increasing by 15 per cent which was driven by a higher demand for the group’s Insights products.
“In finalising the first half result, we have reviewed the full FY17 outlook and now expect the ANZ and Asia SaaS/VAS business to deliver mid-to-high single-digit revenue growth and low single-digit range EBITDA growth,” Croll said.
“We expect a full-year FY17 EBITDA loss in content marketing.
“While I am disappointed in the result, importantly we have a number of initiatives underway to improve execution and grow the business.”
