Founded by billionaire tycoon Ananda Krishnan, Astro’s huge drop in net profit was driven by higher net financing cost arising largely from unrealised forex impact from unhedged finance lease liabilities, and a drop in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (Ebitda).
In its filing with Bursa Malaysia today, Astro said Q3 revenue fell 9.4% to RM926.2 million from RM1.02 billion a year earlier on a decrease in subscription revenue and merchandise sales, but offset by an increase in advertising revenue.
For the cumulative nine months (9M FY2023) net profit tumbled RM130 million to RM204.28 million from RM334.29 million in the corresponding period a year earlier. The company posted lower revenue of RM2.8 billion year to date from RM3.14 billion in the corresponding period (9M FY2022).
Astro announced its third interim single-tier dividend of 0.75 sen per ordinary share payable on Jan 13, 2023. It had declared a first interim single-tier dividend of 1.25 sen, and a second interim single-tier dividend of 1 sen per ordinary share previously.
It said television revenue for the current quarter of RM833.1 million was lower by RM63 million or 7% against the corresponding quarter of RM896.1 million, mainly from the decrease in subscription revenue, advertising revenue and sales of programming rights, offset by an increase in licensing income.
Television Ebitda fell by RM34 million or 11.8% against the corresponding quarter. This is due to a decrease in revenue and higher broadband costs, but mitigated by lower content costs.
The radio segment was one of few positives for Astro as Q3 revenue was higher by RM19.8 million or 60.9% compared with the corresponding quarter last year, benefiting from recovery momentum in the transition to the endemic phase.
Favourable radio revenue growth contributed to a 164% rise in Ebitda, or by RM14.1 million, compared with the corresponding quarter last year.
Meanwhile, home-shopping’s revenue for the quarter fell by RM53 million (56.5%) to close at RM40.8 million compared with the previous corresponding quarter of RM93.8 million, primarily due to subdued consumer sentiment, more cautious spending and the return of customers to physical stores.
Astro group CEO Henry Tan said that going forward, the company would continuously invest in transformation for long-term and sustainable growth, focusing on content, broadband, streaming, customer experience, data, addressable advertising and technology to better serve customers.
“An increasing number of global streaming apps have been integrated into our flagship Ultra Box and included in our new Astro TV packages for the best big-screen viewing experience,” he added.
Tan said the group expects to continue aggregating the best streaming apps and adding lifestyle apps which are relevant for Malaysians in the near future.
“Addressable advertising is gaining traction in the market and is being enhanced with a unified audience measurement on linear, on-demand and over-the-top (OTT) services.
“We expect addressable advertising to have increased industry adoption over time and to continue growing into the future,” he added.
Astro’s share price fell half a sen to 71 sen today, valuing the group at RM3.75 billion.