Shares in the owner of the Daily Mail plunge 25% after warning of a tough 2018

Daily Mail front page on 29 September 2016.Daily Mail/Twitter

• Shares in Daily Mail owner DMGT dropped nearly 25% in early trading on Thursday
• The company announced losses of £112.3 million for the full year to September.

LONDON — Shares in Daily Mail owner DMGT dropped nearly 25% in early trading on Thursday after posting a pre-tax loss for the full year to September and warned 2018 will be “adversely affected by recent disposals and challenging conditions.”

The firm, which also owns the Metro newspaper brand, said in a results statement that its full-year loss was £112.3 million pounds, including impairment charges, compared to last year’s profit of £201.7 million.

Here’s the chart:

Investing

It said 2018 would be a “year of transition” and added:

“The Group’s short-term earnings will be adversely affected by recent disposals and challenging conditions in some of our sectors. However, the Board is confident that in the medium term the strategy will result in DMGT being well-positioned to generate sustainable earnings growth with a strong balance sheet which will underpin DMGT’s long-standing commitment to deliver real dividend growth.”

Shares were down 24% at 531p at 8.40 a.m. GMT (3.40 a.m. ET).