Spain El Pais publisher takes massive Portugal hit

Spain’s top media group Prisa, publisher of leading daily El Pais, said Tuesday it suffered a massive 2011 loss of more than 451 million euros after taking provisions on its Portugal business.

When the provisions were excluded, the company said its 2011 net profit slumped more than 94 percent to just 1.62 million euros ($2.18 million).

Revenues were down 1.3 percent to 2.71 billion euros in 2011.

In January 2011, Prisa announced 2,500 job losses worldwide, equal to 18 percent of its total staff spread across Spain, Portugal and Latin America.