6 Nov 2014

APN wipes off $54 million

2:52 pm on 6 November 2014

The New Zealand arm of APN News and Media has wiped $54 million off the value of its newspapers.

The write-down of the value of its mastheads was part of the media company's plan to float NZME, the recently rebranded New Zealand business.

NZME owns a number of media assets, including The New Zealand Herald and a network of commercial radio stations, including The Hits.

Following a review of the assets it said it would make a non-cash impairment charge of $54 million related to its newspaper mastheads in New Zealand.

However, APN said the New Zealand newspaper titles would continue to be a strong contributor to its future earnings and cash flows.

The charge would be included in APN's full year result, ending in December.

The company said its medium term objective was to maintain its total advertising market share in New Zealand, of between 13 and 14 percent, and said it was investing in new areas to deliver revenue, such as digital and the events sector.

It was forecasting to generate $55 million of annual revenue from those new initiatives by the end of its next financial year ending in 2015.

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