Former Mirror Group chief executive David Montgomery today said his latest venture Mecom, which publishes more than 300 regional newspapers across five European countries, is well-placed to weather the economic downturn.

"Of course we're not immune," he said. "But Poland and Norway are still faring better than most countries in Europe, and at the same time the falls in advertising revenue we are seeing should be made up for by costcutting we have already put in place."

Mecom has been created over the past three years in a series of takeovers masterminded by Montgomery. Today he said first-half advertising revenues had dropped 2% and were likely to fall by a similar amount in the second half. But he added: "Unlike UK regional newspapers, we are not so reliant on classified advertising, which has seen a much worse downturn than display advertising."

Overall revenues were broadly unchanged at £770 million while adjusted operating profits, which exclude the effects of takeovers, were down 3% at £64 million. Montgomery said that this included effective cuts of 6% in the group's wage bills.

He also admitted that debt, up by £31 million at £545 million, was "higher than some might like" but asserted that it was "well within our covenants and there's no distress there".