Promising start for Meridian

MERIDIAN Broadcasting, the new Independent Television franchise holder controlled by Lord Hollick's MAI Group, has had a strong start to its media life, with advertising ahead of expectations in the first few months of this year.

MAI, which owns 61 per cent of Meridian, said advertising revenue figures so far were encouraging, although it was too early to predict the outcome for the year. In addition, several good deals with TVS Entertainment, the previous incumbent, meant launch costs were about pounds 20m lower than anticipated.

The success of Meridian could mean that MAI will expand further in television, possibly though a merger with another ITV company. MAI has pounds 56m of cash on its balance sheet and a spokeswoman said that once it was confident of its ability to manage an ITV company, it might look for 'areas of expansion with synergy and benefits.'

However, Meridian did not contribute to MAI's results for the six months to 31 December, which showed pre-tax profits up 12 per cent at pounds 34m, earnings up similarly at 6.5p and a 43 per cent hike in the interim dividend to 2p.

The rise came mainly from higher volumes through Garban, the US securities broker. Though MAI's moneybroking operation benefited from Black Wednesday, this was offset by low volumes in the latter part of the year, notably in the dollar/yen market.

Safeguard, the car insurance side, continues to be a drag and is being reorganised in response to increased competition from telephone-based brokers such as Direct Line.

MAI's shares rose 1p to 184p.