Astro Malaysia

Astro Malaysia

Postby winston » Sat Jun 07, 2014 7:00 am

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HLIB Research positive on Astro subscriber growth

KUALA LUMPUR: HongLeong Investment Bank Research is maintaining its Buy call on Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd at a target price of RM3.72.

It said this was due to “stronger FCF (free cash flow) growth and completion of high capex phase for B.yond set top box swap out exercise, which will translate into strong earnings growth ahead,” it said.

However, due to the MH370 case, there has been a negative impact on advertising expenditure of all media companies, Astro no exempting.

As such HLIB Research expects Astro’s year-on-year growth for the first quarter of the financial year ending January 2015(1QFY01/15) to be marginally slower but says the impact should be temporary.

The target growth for the average revenue per user (ARPU) in its first quarter is 4%, to RM100 per month. This is base on expected “higher revenue from B.yond subscribers and higher take-up rate of NJOI,” it said.

Higher costs are expected from the World Cup 2014, pushing content to account for 35%, but the continued growth in ARPU, subscribers and Adex likely will offset the cost.

The research house expects that Astro will have continued subscriber growth, as it’s a strong content provider.

Source: The Star
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Re: Astro Malaysia

Postby winston » Thu Jun 19, 2014 6:18 am

Astro net profit up 12% to RM128.3mil, declares 2.25 sen dividend

KUALA LUMPUR: Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd's earnings rose 12.4% to RM128.33mil in the first quarter ended April 30, 2014 from RM114.13mil a year ago, boosted by higher EBITDA and lower tax expenses.

The pay-TV operator said on Wednesday there was an increase in EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) of RM60.30mil and decrease in tax expenses of RM4.7mil.

However, this was offset by an increase in depreciation of set-top boxes of RM29.30mil, amortisation of software of RM8.10mil and an increase in net finance costs of RM9.70mil.

Astro's revenue increased 11% to RM1.25bil from RM1.12bil a year ago boosted by the increase in subscription and advertising.

"This was mainly due to the increase in subscription, advertising and other revenue of RM82.1mil, RM6.8mil and RM39.2mil respectively," it said.

Astro said the higher subscription revenue was due to both an increase in average revenue per user (ARPU) for Pay-TV residential subscribers of RM2.90 (from RM94.20 to RM97.10) and an increase in number of Pay-TV residential subscribers by 154,600 (from 3,315,800 to 3,470,400).

Revenue was also boosted by higher licensing income of RM27.4mil and sales of decoders for NJOI customers of RM4.2mil.

As for its radio, revenue rose RM4.1mil to RM53.3mil from RM49.2mil a year ago. The higher revenue performance was driven by continuous strong listenership ratings.

Earnings per share stood at 2.47 sen compared to 2.19 sen a year ago. The group declared a dividend of 2.25 sen a share.

Astro also said it had scheduled a line-up of key sporting events such as the Brazil World Cup and BPL.

However, its M3B satellite launch has been delayed to later in the year.

"As such, the group will defer the launch of additional channels until new transponder capacity becomes available. However, the group does not currently anticipate any material impact on the financial performance for the current financial year," it said.

Astro noted it has good visibility on its operating expenses, in particular content costs, with the significant majority of its key content contracts secured on a long term basis.

Source: The Star
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Re: Astro Malaysia

Postby winston » Fri Jun 20, 2014 6:44 pm

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Astro home shopping channel to boost revenue by RM500m by cecilia kok

KUALA LUMPUR: Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd expects its revenue to be boosted by RM500mil in five years with its home shopping business in Malaysia via a joint venture with South Korea's GS Home Shopping Inc.

It said on Thursday the channel was expected to be launched by year-end.

The first stage is the Malaysia market which represents 60% of its subscribers for the pay-TV channels.

Astro added the products would be those used for lifestyle, healthcare and home care

To recap, in February, Astro's unit Astro Retail Ventures Sdn. Bhd had inked a shareholders agreement with GS Home to set up a JV company Astro GS Shop Sdn Bhd.

The total capitalisation of Astro GS Shop would be RM70mil (to be contributed by Astro Retail and GS Home in the proportion of the shareholding ratio of 60:40 respectively) in several tranches.

Astro GS Shop intends to carry out home shopping business through various platforms including but not limited to TV home shopping, Internet shopping and mobile shopping, it said.


Source: The Star
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Re: Astro Malaysia

Postby winston » Mon Sep 22, 2014 10:04 am

Astro: 2QFY15 within forecast; Upgrade to BUY

Astro Malaysia Holdings Berhad (Astro) saw a 13.5% YoY (+7.6% QoQ) jump in 2QFY15 revenue to MYR1349.1m, while net profit rose 39.3% YoY (+7.4% QoQ) to MYR137.8m.

1HFY15 revenue came in at MYR1349.1m (+12.5%), meeting 46% of our full-year forecast, while net profit rose 24.9% to MYR266.1m, or around 54% of our FY estimate.

Astro declared an interim dividend of 2.25 sen/share; total of MYR4.5 sen for 1HFY15, versus 4 sen the same period last year.

Since our downgrade on 19 Jun, the share price has fallen by more than 11% to a recent MYR3.26 low, although it has since recovered slightly.

Nevertheless, as there is still a very decent 11% upside (total return of 14%) to our unchanged DCF-based fair value of MYR3.75, we upgrade our Hold call to BUY.

Source: OCBC
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Re: Astro Malaysia

Postby winston » Thu Nov 13, 2014 7:50 pm

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Affin Hwang keeps ‘add’ rating on Astro
12 NOVEMBER 2014

AFFIN Hwang Capital Research maintained its “add” rating on Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd with a target price of RM3.70, on the back of the broadcaster’s announcement that it will revise high-definition (HD) fees from RM20 to RM25 next month.

“We are positive on this as it will help increase Astro’s average revenue per user (ARPU) as currently 61 per cent of Astro’s customers are subscribing to the HD package,” said the research house.

“This is consistent with the management’s guidance on the lifting of ARPUs. We have built in a RM3 increase in blended ARPUs into our FY16 forecast to capture some of the price hikes and hence leave our forecasts unchanged for now.”

The research house said some of the price impact may be diluted as consumers downgrade amid rising inflation and weaker consumer sentiments.

Astro announced on Tuesday that it will be raising the price of its HD service by RM5, the first price hike since the service introduction in 2009 on the back of 10 new channel additions to its portfolio.

The firm launched two new packages yesterday, the Fans Pack and the Astro Super Pack Plus (ASPP).

The broadcaster said it is targeting 100,000 new subscriptions for the ASPP packages for the 12 months from March next year as the demand for HD services is on the rise.

Source: The Star
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Re: Astro Malaysia

Postby winston » Fri Dec 12, 2014 5:09 am

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Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd net profit fell 8.33% to RM113.41 million in the third quarter ended Oct 31, 2014 (3QFY15), from RM123.71 million a year ago, due to higher tax expenses, amortisation of software, and higher depreciation of property, plant and equipment.

However, the higher tax expenses — by RM15.1 million — was primarily due to a reversal in over provision of tax, amounting to RM9.8 million in the corresponding quarter, its filing with Bursa Malaysia today showed.

The media and entertainment company has also declared a third interim dividend of 2.25 sen per share, payable next Jan 12.

This brings its total dividend for the nine months of FY15 (9MFY15) to 6.75 sen per share, 12.5% higher than 6.0 sen per share in 9MFY14.

Quarterly revenue grew 5.24% to RM1.28 billion, from RM1.22 billion a year ago, mainly due to the higher subscriptions and other revenue of RM56.7 million and RM11.7 million respectively, though this was offset by a decrease in advertising revenue of RM4.7 million.

For the cumulative nine months (9MFY15), Astro's net profit was 12.73% higher at RM379.4 million, from RM336.56 million in the previous corresponding quarter. Revenue for the period was also up 9.98% to RM3.88 billion, from RM3.53 billion a year ago.

Astro closed 1 sen or 0.3% higher at RM3.33, giving it a market capitalisation of RM17.43 billion.

Source: The Edge
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Re: Astro Malaysia

Postby winston » Mon Dec 15, 2014 5:55 pm

Astro: Steady 3QFY15 showing

Astro Malaysia Holdings Berhad (Astro) posted a 5% YoY increase in 3QFY15 revenue to MYR180.2m; but net profit slipped 9% to MYR113.3m, mainly due to 52% YoY jump in tax and 27% fall in interest income.

Astro declared an interim dividend of 2.25 sen/share (entitlement date: 29 Dec), same as 3QFY14.

9MFY15 revenue rose 10% to MYR3883.2m, meeting 69% of our full-year forecast, while net profit jumped 13% to MYR379.4m, or 76% of our FY15 estimate.

Astro saw its stock price decline by some 7.8% post the 3QFY15 results, likely weighed by the YoY fall in earnings as well as the ongoing challenges in growing its IPTV business.

However, we note that the results were within our expectations; hence we opt to keep our estimates unchanged.

Maintain BUY with an unchanged DCF-based fair value of MYR3.75.

Source: OCBC
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Re: Astro Malaysia

Postby winston » Thu Sep 17, 2015 6:33 am

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Higher Astro dividends despite flat earnings

Pay-TV firm Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd has declared a higher dividend payout for the second quarter despite posting flattish earnings growth.

It announced a second interim payout per share of 2.75 sen compared with 2.25 sen a year ago.

Net profit during the quarter was little-changed at RM137.24mil compared with RM137.66mil previously.

Source: Star Biz
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Re: Astro Malaysia

Postby winston » Thu Dec 10, 2015 6:58 am

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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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Re: Astro Malaysia

Postby winston » Wed Nov 16, 2016 8:22 am

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Astro to be taken private?

BY P. ARUNA

Listed at RM3 a share in October 2012, Astro’s share price has hovered below that level.

It peaked at RM3.32 on June 13, 2014.

In January this year, Astro’s share price hit a three-year low of RM2.34, its lowest since November 2012.


The company had come under pressure due to competition from over the top service providers such as Netflix and iflix and because of the weaker ringgit, which also meant that it had to cough up more to pay for global contents.


Source: The Star

http://www.thestar.com.my/business/busi ... n-private/
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