Valuing that business in comparison with its peer GWR means Border’s radio interests could be worth around pounds 40m.
On the TV side, despite talk of ITV franchises being mature, slow growth businesses, Border saw advertising revenue jump 11 per cent on a 44 per cent share of peaktime viewing Both figures are well ahead of ITV network averages. As the UK’s fastest growing advertising medium, radio commands higher sales and earnings multiples than television. Border’s four radio stations, three under the Century brand, are forecast to record sales of nearly pounds 10m and operating profit of pounds 1.5m for the year to March 2000. This has seen Border shares undergo a re-rating, which, despite a near 50 per cent rise over the past year, would still appear to have further to run

The logic is simple.

BORDER TELEVISION, the ITV franchise for the England-Scotland border region and the Isle of Man, is making a successful play of building a commercial radio business to complement its traditional television operation. But there is more likely to be good economic news from Germany than bad in the coming months The economic shock has meanwhile made SIG more competitive Buy.u. Analysts expect pre-tax profits of pounds 38m and earnings of 21.9p per share this year, putting the shares, up at 208.5p on a forward p/e of 10.The group will not be reporting more news before September, when it posts interims. Its shares crashed from 343.5p to a low of 91p last year as investors ran for cover. SIG responded by cutting back around 15 per cent of the German business.
The investment case for the company depends on the prospects for German recovery, from which SIG says it is well placed to benefit.

Will any schadenfreude on the part of SIG chief executive Bill Forrester be premature? SIG expanded its German operations just before recession hit in the second half of 1997. Its shares jumped 10 per cent yesterday on the back of a positive trading statement. Last week, RMC the concrete group, warned about the German recession’s impact on its business and last month, BPB, the plasterboard maker, warned of weakness in the region. But SIG, the insulation company which sources 30 per cent of sales in Germany, says things are fine.