Daily Mail publisher reports 13 pct drop in profit, shares sink

LONDON, Nov 30 (Reuters) - The publisher of the Daily Mail reported a 13 percent decline in full-year pretax profit, took 206 million pounds in impairment charges and gave a disappointing outlook, sending its shares down 24 percent on Thursday.

Daily Mail & General Trust, which said its highly popular MailOnline website had become profitable in the final quarter, reported pretax profit of 226 million pounds ($304 million)on revenue of 1.66 billion pounds in the year to end-September, up 1 percent on an underlying basis.

The company said the underlying rate of decline in its media business was expected to be in the mid-single digits in its 2018 financial year, with the operating margin dropping to about 10 percent from 11 percent in the previous year.

Analysts at Liberum said the guidance looked underwhelming and described 2018 as a transition year, with the disappointment coming in the consumer media side of the business, where they had expected revenue to be flat.

($1 = 0.7423 pounds) (Reporting by Paul Sandle; editing by Kate Holton)