Centaur Media — Unbundling to deliver value

Centaur Media (LSE: CAU)

Last close As at 16/09/2025

GBP0.39

0.00 (0.00%)

Market capitalisation

GBP60m

More on this equity

Research: TMT

Centaur Media — Unbundling to deliver value

Centaur is making good progress in realising the value within its portfolio, with the sale of the MiniMBA and Oystercatchers in July and the agreed disposal of The Lawyer, announced more recently and expected to complete in October. The residual brands (excluding The Lawyer) generated revenues of £5.9m in H125 and an adjusted operating loss of £1.3m (after group overhead allocations). Once disposal proceeds have been received, Centaur’s management anticipates the group having net cash of c £67m, before payment of the interim dividend of 0.6p per share (cost of £0.9m). Shareholders will be consulted as to the mechanism of returning the cash before the end of the year. Given the considerable progress that has been made on the unbundling, we do not now intend to reinstate forecasts.

Fiona Orford-Williams

Written by

Fiona Orford-Williams

Director, TMT

Media

H125 figures

17 September 2025

Price 39.00p
Market cap £61m

Net cash as at 15 September

£24.7m

Shares in issue

151.4m
Code CAU
Primary exchange LSE
Secondary exchange N/A
Price Performance
% 1m 3m 12m
Abs 23.1 21.2 37.6
52-week high/low 42.0p 20.1p

Business description

Centaur Media is an international provider of business intelligence, learning and specialist consultancy. Its Xeim and The Lawyer business units serve the marketing and legal sectors respectively and offer customers a wide range of products and services targeted at helping them add value.

Next events

Further intended disposals

H225

Analyst

Fiona Orford-Williams
+44 (0)20 3077 5700

Centaur Media is a research client of Edison Investment Research Limited

Note: PBT and EPS are adjusted, excluding amortisation of acquired intangibles, exceptional items and share-based payments, and EPS are fully diluted. DPS excludes special dividend paid for FY23.

Year end Revenue (£m) PBT (£m) EPS (p) DPS (p) P/E (x) Yield (%)
12/22 38.4 4.9 2.49 1.10 15.7 2.8
12/23 37.3 7.6 4.16 1.80 9.4 4.6
12/24 35.1 3.9 1.90 1.80 20.5 4.6

Reported results show the impact of difficult markets

The published H125 figures include MiniMBA as a discontinued business. The Lawyer’s performance remained positive, with growing premium subscriptions (+16% on H124) and high renewal rates, leading to the book of business being up 11% over the half year. Marketing Week, Festival of Marketing and Creative Review grew revenues by 8%, but suffered some margin pressure. Elsewhere, the narrative was more challenged, with the marketing budgets of multinational customers continuing to be under pressure. This was particularly felt at Econsultancy, where revenues were down 33% on the prior year.

Now all about the cash

As at 15 September, the £19m cash from the disposal of MiniMBA had been received, making net cash at that date of £24.7m. The sale of The Lawyer is set to realise a further £43m of enterprise value, giving the group an estimated net cash balance of £67m on receipt of funds, expected early-October. Oystercatchers was sold to its management in early July for an undisclosed sum. Considerable work has been carried out internally to separate out the other brands to facilitate their disposal by enhancing their profitability, and Marketing Week and Creative Review are said to be well on the way to new homes. The required central functions for the remaining brands, Econsultancy and TIG, are being outsourced and/or restructured.

Valuation: Based on translation to cash

There is no merit at this juncture in attempting to value the residual businesses on a trading basis, as we expect that the programme of disposals will conclude within the next few months. The pro forma net cash balance of £67m, as expected in early-October, is equivalent to 44.25p per share. This is a little ahead of the current share price, as would be expected from the small degree of execution risk and the (short) time value to full asset realisation.

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