KUALA LUMPUR (April 15): AffinHwang Capital Research has maintained its “Sell” rating on Media Prima Bhd (MPR) with an unchanged target price of RM1.50 and said it was still cautious on MPR given the weakness in its main segments (TV and print) as well as the challenges and uncertainties in the market.

In a note today, the research house said it expect MPR’s 2015 core net profit to grow by about 20.3% year-on-year to RM170.8 million, due to the lower base effect in 2014.

“However, we opine that there are overriding concerns in the print and TV network that pose some risks to our forecasts.

“These include: 1) the continuous shift in adex from print and FTA to pay TV; and 2) declining hard copy print circulations due to the rising popularity of online media.

“With a lack of re-rating catalysts, we maintain our Sell rating on MPR with an unchanged target price of RM1.50,” it said.