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WA Newspapers year profit up on ad revenues

Thu Aug 2, 2007 12:25am EDT

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SYDNEY, Aug 2 (Reuters) - West Australian Newspaper Holdings Ltd. (WAN.AX) posted a 19.5 percent rise in annual profits before one-off items on Thursday due to buoyant advertising markets.

However, its earnings after one-off items fell, hurt by the depreciation of some assets, redundancy costs and a writedown on the value of its cinema business.

The publisher, which owns 22 regional newspapers and magazines in Australia, said net profit before one-off items for the year to June 30 was A$128.4 million ($110 million) compared with A$107.5 million a year earlier.

WAN, which owns a regional radio network and Perth's main newspaper, The West Australian, said the advertising market remained buoyant.

"The strong advertising market in 2007 has continued into the first quarter of 2007/08," WAN said in a statement.

WAN shares were trading 2.2 percent higher at 0312 GMT in an overall market .FTSE up 1.8 percent.

Australian broadcaster Seven Network Ltd. (SEV.AX) lifted its stake in WAN from to 16.1 percent to 17.3 percent on Wednesday, taking advantage of new media ownership laws.

WAN said reported net profit including one-off items fell 22 percent to A$54 million due to depreciation on printing equipment, employee redundancies and a writedown on the carrying value of its Hoyts Cinema investment by A$60 million to A$145 million.

It declared a final dividend of 31 cents a share, up 22 percent.

Seven first bought a stake in WAN, widely considered a takeover target, in October ahead of new Australian media ownership laws enacted in April.

($1=A$1.17)

((Reporting by Michael Smith; michael.j.smith@reuters.com; Reuters Messaging: michael.j.smith@reuters.net; +61-2 9373-1821)) Keywords: WAN RESULTS/

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