by winston » Thu Dec 10, 2015 6:58 am
not vested
Astro to maintain dividend payout
PETALING JAYA: Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd, which saw its net profit slide 6.5% to RM106.01mil for the third quarter ended Oct 31, on unrealised foreign exchange (forex) impact, said it will maintain its dividend policy payout amid the volatile landscape.
The broadcaster has declared a dividend of 2.75 sen per share for the quarter under review.
In a filing with the stock exchange yesterday, the group said the lower net profit was due to a decrease in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of RM16.1mil, higher net finance costs by RM36.4mil on an unrealised forex impact arising from an unhedged finance lease liability of RM54.5mil, and unhedged vendor financing of RM8.8mil.
This was offset by a decrease in the discounting of the transponder’s deposit to its present value of RM22mil.
The group’s revenue climbed 7.4% to RM1.37bil on an increase in merchandise sales of RM14.6mil from the home-shopping business and sales of programming rights of RM8.4mil. This was offset by a decrease in subscription and advertising of RM10.5mil and RM7.2mil.
Earnings per share (EPS) was lower at 2.04 sen from 2.18 sen in the previous year.
For the nine-month period, the broadcaster’s net profit increased to RM411.55mil from RM379.40mil on the back of a higher revenue of RM4.07bil from RM3.88bil a year ago.
EPS improved to 7.91 sen from 7.30 sen. A dividend of 8.25 sen per share was declared from 6.75 sen per share previously.
Radio’s revenue for the quarter was lower at RM75.1mil from the previous RM80.9mil due to the festive season in the preceding quarter.
The group also said the lower EBITDA margin was dragged by higher content costs, marketing and market research expenses and selling as well as distribution costs, but offset by compensation for a delay in the return of the transponder and lower impairment of receivables.
The television segment saw lower subcription revenue due to decrease in net addition for Pay-TV residential subscribers by 900 (from 15,000 to 14,100).
With the aim to deliver strong cashflows, Astro chief executive officer Datuk Rohana Rozhan (pic) said the group had added 218,000 new TV customers during the period under review, underpinned by strong response for Astro NJOI.
“This resulted in a customer base of 4.7 million or a 66% TV household penetration in the third quarter of the financial year 2016 from 62% a year ago.
“Average revenue per user grew to RM99.30 from RM98.50 backed by the take-up of value-added services,” said Rohana, adding that there was good response from its On Demand offering launched in October.
This pushed up connected personal video recorders to 252,000 and Astro on the Go downloads to 1.8 million, with an average 150 minutes weekly viewing time.
Astro’s share of advertising and radio expenditure grew by 34% and 60.5%, driven by higher viewers and listeners.
Meanwhile, Go Shop, its e-commerce business’ revenue went up to RM126mil with good response to the Chinese language channel. Going forward, Rohana added that next year would be a more challenging year with a higher sports cost and a volatile forex environment.
Source: The Star
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