IBC expects to repay pounds 1.5m

INTERNATIONAL Business Communications, the troubled conference and newsletter publishing group, hopes to repay at least a further pounds 1.5m of senior debt this year.

Under the terms of a refinancing deal with its bankers, this repayment will allow IBC to convert pounds 6m of 1996 loan notes into 2030 loan notes.

Operating profits in 1992 rose nearly 28 per cent to pounds 6.1m on turnover up 11 per cent at pounds 55.4m. Peter Rigby, chief executive, said US profits had increased by 58 per cent and UK profits by 27 per cent.

Pre-tax results, which recovered from a pounds 4.5m loss to a pounds 750,000 surplus, show the impact of the complicated structure of IBC's pounds 75m of debt. Stripping out pounds 2.8m of interest notionally paid on a 1996 debenture, IBC made profits of pounds 3.6m, a 76 per cent improvement.

Subscription levels to IBC's financial newsletters, which include the Penny Share Guide, have stabilised.