Trinity Mirror's first-half profit boosted by Local World deal

LONDON, Aug 1 (Reuters) - British newspaper publisher Trinity Mirror (LSE: TNI.L - news) said first-half adjusted profit rose 42 percent after it bought regional newspaper publisher Local World and tightly managed costs in a tough print advertising market.

Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) in the group, which publishes the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror, were trading up 6 percent at 0919 GMT, as analysts at Barclays (LSE: BARC.L - news) said the results beat its expectations and the group announced a 10 million pound ($13.2 million) share buyback.

The company, which acquired Local World in November, reported adjusted pretax profit of 66.9 million pounds for the 27 weeks to July 3 on revenue 30 percent higher at 374.7 million pounds.

The company said the trading environment was volatile in the period, and it saw no more stability in the remainder of the year, in particular because of macroeconomic uncertainty created by Britain's vote to leave the European Union in June.

On a like-for-like basis, revenues fell 7.8 percent, which analysts said indicated a more than 10 percent fall in print advertising revenue in the second quarter.

The company said group like-for-like revenue had fallen 9 percent in July.

"With (Other OTC: WWTH - news) circulation much less volatile, that suggests that print advertising has returned to a high teens rate of decline -- somewhat worrying given fears on UK macro and the impact on advertising," Barclays said. ($1 = 0.7594 pounds) (Reporting by Paul Sandle; Editing by Adrian Croft)