Friday 29 Mar 2024
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This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on November 17, 2015.

 

KUALA LUMPUR: Star Media Group Bhd saw its net profit fall 31.1% to RM23.64 million or 3.2 sen a share for the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2015 (3QFY15) from RM34.3 million or 4.65 sen a share a year ago, dragged by higher direct costs from its subsidiary, Singapore-listed Cityneon Holdings Ltd, and lower revenue from the print segment and I Star Ideas Factory Sdn Bhd.

Revenue for 3QFY15, however, grew 3% to RM254.51 million from RM247.18 million in 3QFY14 mainly due to higher revenue contribution from the event segment.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia yesterday, Star Media said its print and digital revenue declined by 7.4% mainly due to lower advertising revenue caused by poor consumer sentiment, the slowdown in the economy and the weakening ringgit.

“This has affected the overall advertising expenditure (adex) and as a result, profit before tax for this (print and digital) segment fell by 19% compared with the last corresponding quarter. Newspaper adex for 3QFY15 fell by 15.6% year-on-year,” it added.

The weaker earnings for 3QFY15 dragged down the group’s net profit for the nine-month period (9MFY15), which fell 7.2% to RM83.48 million or 11.31 sen per share from RM89.93 million or 12.19 sen per share in 9MFY14.

Revenue rose by a marginal 0.74% to RM738.25 million in 9MFY15 from RM732.85 million in 9MFY14.

Moving forward, Star Media said it is cautiously optimistic that it will achieve a satisfactory performance for FY15 as adex for the rest of the year is expected to remain subdued.

“[We] will continue to focus and strengthen our key strategies in the media industry.

“The media-related segments of the group will continue to enhance their respective media platforms to extend their reach to wider audiences by continuing to provide more bundled products and creative buys to advertisers,” it said.

“The group is also expanding aggressively into the digital business in video content (TheStarTV) and its recently launched audience interest marketing. In the event and exhibition business segment, Cityneon will continue to seek out more opportunities both locally and in other emerging markets such as Vietnam and Myanmar,” it added.

Star Media shares closed up one sen or 0.42% at RM2.40 yesterday, giving it a market capitalisation of RM1.76 billion.

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