—UK slide: Still no word on rumours of an Independent sale—but, from today’s figures, they don’t look like such a great investment. UK income slid €53.1 million to €215 million and operating profit dwindled nearly 99 percent to €200,000. The Indie papers themselves made 14.3 percent less revenue than in 2007. INM now says its office-sharing deal with DMGT will also extend to “information technology, production and picture services with further additional services to be shared going forward”.

—Costs down, margins up: Like all big newspaper groups, INM is benefiting from large-scale budget cuts: total group costs were reduced last year by €138 million, or 10.4 percent, mainly through some severe redundancies: the company lost 630 staff in 2008 and expects another 160 to go this year. Thanks to the cuts operating margin has crept up to 19.7 percent.

—Outlook: The INM board seems chuffed with its 2008 performance—they say it “compared favourably to its peer group”—but admit that trading in Q109 has been “tougher than expected”. The company expects profits for the year before exceptionals to be between €200 million and €230 million.

Update: In a conference call with reporters, Gavin O’Reilly did nothing to stop speculation that the company is actively looking to sell the Indie or may have received bids for it. Asked if he could rule out a sale he said (via Guardian.co.uk): “I’m going to rule out being drawn into answering that question.” Nor did he confirm that the company was working with investment bank Lezards to manage bids for the titles—saying only that the company had worked with Lezard’s bankers on several occasions over the years.