The Times - UK (2021-11-11)

52 Thursday November 11 2021 | the times

Business

5

ITV predicted yesterday that its adver-

tising revenues would surge to an all-

time high this year thanks to a jump in

spending on online marketing and the

reopening of the economy.

Shares in the broadcaster rose by the

largest amount in 11 years on the back of

the bullish forecast, which has raised

hopes that ITV can put years of

underperformance behind it.

In a trading update, it forecast that

annual advertising sales should climb

by 24 per cent compared with last year,

when marketing chiefs slashed budgets

and suspended campaigns after the

pandemic struck in the spring.

Total external revenues rose 28 per

cent to £2.4 billion as its broadcasting

and production divisions recovered

from the blows of Covid-19. Sales at

both topped levels of last year and in

2019. “By any standards, ITV has had an
      outstanding nine months,” Dame
      Carolyn McCall, chief executive, said.
      Total advertising turnover rose by
      30 per cent in the nine months to the
      end of September, with revenues at its
      studios wing 32 per cent higher. At its
      media and entertainment division,
      sales rose by 26 per cent to £1.6 billion,
      with online advertising up 54 per cent
      in the first nine months of the year.
      Viewing figures were boosted by the
      Euro 2020 football championship, Love

T

Enterprise

Network

Lessons

learnt

A year on from

the Sunburst

supply chain

cyberattack,

Sudhakar

Ramakrishna,

chief excecutive

of SolarWinds,

reflects on the

lessons from the

fallout.

Christmas

cheer

More than two-

thirds of small

businesses are

confident of

strong

Christmas

trading even if

new Covid

restrictions are

reintroduced

over the winter.

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A clean jet fuel developer spun out of

the University of Oxford has agreed to

supply International Consolidated Air-

lines Group, the British Airways group,

and Southwest Airlines, the largest

low-cost carrier in the United States.

The deals — seen as bold commit-

ments to ditching carbon-emitting,

polluting conventional kerosene and

The boss of Aveva yesterday shrugged

off deepening losses, saying that they

were not as bad as they might look and

were in line with what City analysts

had been thinking.

Shares in the FTSE 100 industrial

software company continued a fall that

started in September after it reported

flattish revenues of £516 million in the

six months to the end of September and

losses widening to £74 million from

£23 million in the first six months of the

pandemic. The stock, which had stood

at £42.20 in September, slid a further

126p, or 3.6 per cent, to £33.84.

However, Peter Herweck, 55, Aveva’s

chief executive, said: “End market con-

ditions started to improve following

disruption caused by the Covid crisis.

We are seeing the resumption of struc-

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embracing a future of synthetic and

sustainable aviation fuels — sent

shares in Velocys up by a third to value

the Aim-listed company at nearly

£90 million.

The multi-year supply agreements

mean that it can build its first bio-

refinery in Mississippi using woodchip

from forestry, with plans to go into pro-

duction from 2026. It will develop a

second refinery at Immingham on the

Humber, where it will produce syn-

thetic paraffinic kerosene from house-

hold and commercial rubbish.

Velocys will supply Southwest with

575 million gallons of blended jet fuel

over fifteen years and IAG with 192 mil-

lion gallons over ten. It is estimated the

green fuel being supplied to IAG is

enough to power 1,500 BA flights

between London and New York a year.

The shares closed up 2¼p at 8½p.

tural growth, driven by increased digi-

talisation and net-zero projects, across

a wide range of industry sectors.”

Aveva helps industrial companies

and chemicals and oil and gas installa-

tions to capture data, analyse it and use

artificial intelligence to boost opera-

tions. Four years ago, it merged with the

industrial software business of Schnei-

der Electric and the French group is a

60 per cent shareholder.

Robert Lea Industrial Editor

Aveva boss looks past losses to more positive future

15.1 per cent, to 125¾p, valuing the com-

pany at about £5 billion. The share price

has risen by nearly 40 per cent in the

past year, but has lost a quarter of its

value over the past five years.

Before the pandemic, the company

had been struggling to convince inves-

tors that it could retain its viewers amid

an onslaught of subscription streaming

services such as Netflix and Disney+

and could draw in a younger audience.

McCall has sought to increase mer-

chandise revenues, redesign ITV’s web-

site and sharpen its online ad sales plat-

form. She launched Britbox, the paid

streaming service, in partnership

with the BBC. The revamped ITV

Hub enjoyed a 22 per cent in-

crease in monthly active users

to 9.6 million and a 39 per cent

rise in advertising revenue.

Velocys takes off with deal for green aviation fuel

Robert Lea Industrial Editor

Drama series such as Vera, along with

Advertising

is surging to

put ITV back

in the game

Marketing chiefs are

spending again, while

viewing figures soar for

football and drama,

writes Simon Duke

Island and dramas such as Manhunt:

The Night Stalker and Ve r a.

ITV is Britain’s largest free-to-air

broadcaster and in a typical year it

earns about half its revenues from sell-

ing on-air and online adverts. The rest

comes from its studios division, which

produces programmes for its own

channels and for rival broadcasters and

streaming services, such as the Snow-

piercer series on Netflix.

The pandemic routed the advertising

market, with companies turning off the

taps at the outset of the crisis. After

initial heavy falls, advertising spending

was volatile as the government im-

posed and eased restrictions in res-

ponse to coronavirus infection rates.

However, marketing chiefs have

been spending in earnest since the end

of the most recent lockdown in the

spring. Much of the additional outlay

has gone online, lifting ITV’s

digital advertising business,

with television proving resil-

ient.

The company’s studio

wing was hit hard by

social distancing

rules, which forced ITV

to cancel many productions and in-

creased costs when they resumed.

However, the studios business has

largely returned to normal.

“[ITV Studios] has produced the

biggest dramas of the year so far on

both the BBC and ITV and revenue

from streamers globally is growing very

strongly,” McCall, 60, said. The division

was “embracing new digital processes”,

with more productions managed re-

motely via tools such as cloud-based

editing software, she added.

Shares in ITV closed up 16½p, or

33%

Rise in Velocys

share price after

announcement of

deal to supply fuel to

Southwest and IAG

Source: London Stock Exchange