INM signals ad pick-up

By SIMON HENDERY

International publishing group Independent News & Media is pointing to a pick-up in the global advertising market as it woos investors for its new New Zealand issue of preference shares.

INM subsidiary News & Media NZ wants to raise up to $250 million through an issue of cumulative exchangeable preference shares.

Details of the offer, and a briefing on the parent company's performance, were presented to INM's existing preference shareholders at the company's annual briefing in Auckland yesterday.

INM part-owns the New Zealand Herald through its 44 per cent stake in Australian publisher APN News & Media.

INM chief financial officer Gavin O'Reilly, the son of the company's executive chairman, Sir Anthony O'Reilly, told the meeting that after a contraction in global advertising last year "the prospects for 2003 and 2004 look very favourable indeed".

He said 22 weeks into the company's financial year, ad revenue was ahead of last year for three of the group's four divisions - publishing, radio and outdoor advertising.

Ad revenue was flat at the loss-making new media division, an area where the company was reducing its exposure.