Astro Posts RM1.31bn Revenue in Q1FY19 Date Released:07 Jun 2018
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ADEX 6% | COMMERCE 35% GROWTH IN REVENUE
Astro Malaysia Holdings Berhad | Result highlights for the first quarter of the financial year ending 31 January 2019 (FY19)
Resilience and diversification underpinned respectable results in a challenging market
Revenue stable at RM1.31bn
Strong EBITDA at RM461.3mn
PATAMI -11% y-o-y to RM174.7mn
Strong FCF of RM338mn, enabling attractive dividend yield
Customer and Adex growth supported by scale and reach
Total customers 6% y-o-y to 5.5mn
Adex 6% y-o-y to RM151mn, outperformed market
Strong ecommerce performance; Go Shop revenue 35% y-o-y to RM84mn
Tun Zaki Azmi, Chairman of Astro, said: In what continues to be an evolving and increasingly borderless media landscape, Astro is focused on delivering sustainable growth over the long term. We continue to be highly cash generative and disciplined in our cost and capital management. The Board is pleased to declare a first interim dividend of 2.5 sen per share.
Dato' Rohana Rozhan, Group Chief Executive Officer of Astro, said: We are strongly executing against our strategic imperatives to defend our market position, augment our business model to ensure best in class consumer engagement and expand for scale and growth. Our market reach has grown 6% y-o-y to 5.5mn, or 75% of Malaysian households, with stable revenues at RM1.31bn, and a strong EBITDA at RM461.3mn.
This is the result of our ability to defend and grow our customer base and reach, thus giving us a larger monetisable base across our verticals of pay, prepaid, ad sales, commerce and Go Shop. We saw an increase in TV Adex of 17% y-o-y to RM83mn and are encouraged by the growth of relatively new revenue adjacencies such as commerce and Go Shop, NJOI prepaid and digital Adex; signifying encouraging trajectory as traditional subscription revenues are under competitive pressure.
In parallel, we continue to build our complementary digital ecosystem capabilities, driving efficiencies, better customer experiences, and fit for purpose cost structures. When combined, these are the building blocks for Astro to effectively compete in the New World Order as we strongly reinforce our household reach and viewership with immersive engagement digitally across our media assets.
The value of Astro's products and services, quality entertainment for the whole family, increased seamless viewing, control and flexibility in how customers watch at home and on the go - have successfully deepened the customers' engagement with Astro via 23mn TV viewers, 16.5mn weekly radio listeners and 6.7mn monthly unique visitors on Astro's digital properties. Astro's Connected Home Entertainment services recorded a strong growth of 52% y-o-y to reach 869k households with over 11mn On Demand programmes downloaded and watched. Astro customers continue to enjoy content portability and unprecedented multiscreen access to their favourite live, catch up and On Demand programmes on Astro GO and NJOI Now apps which continue to register more active viewers and a higher level of usage. Astro GO registered users increased by 43% y-o-y to 1.7mn with active viewers watching an average 203 minutes of content monthly.
Rohana said, Astro is developing deep customer personas and data analytics to drive increased immersion and personalization across its media assets, and at the same time, rationalizing cost benefit of spent to address the potential wallet and advertisers for each customer persona.
While focused on our strategic priorities, we have remained committed to our digital first transformation initiatives and a razor focus on cost management, which have created headroom for us to reinvest into creating more local and Nusantara content IPs that will underpin our Pay TV viewership and Tribe's regional expansion.
Recent announcements by the Government to make internet access more affordable at higher speeds, will have positive impact on the broader economy. This will result in a wider access to high-speed broadband infrastructure and Astro looks forward to strengthening and widening its entertainment and Connected Home propositions so that more Malaysian homes can enjoy broadband, entertainment and telephony services at greater value.
Driving New Engines of Growth
Astro started FY19 with another strong quarter of Adex performance which outperformed the market, by registering a 6% growth y-o-y. Astro's total Adex of RM151mn in Q1FY19 was primarily driven by a 17% increase in TV Adex to RM83mn, underpinning Astro's strong share of 44% and 69% in TV Adex and Radex respectively.
The company is strengthening its consumer and digital data analytics capabilities to better serve its targeted consumer personas to enable greater personalisation and more compelling innovative propositions for its B2B and B2C customers.
Astro's eCommerce business registered good performance this quarter. Go Shop saw its Q1FY19 revenue rising by 35% y-o-y to RM84mn, spurred by its growing base of customers in Malaysia and Singapore, mainly driven by its dynamic product mix, analytics driven campaigns and innovative show formats.
Astro's other growth engines like Production, Theatrical and Talent have collectively grow by RM10mn y-o-y to RM20mn.
Astro's regional online video streaming service, Tribe, continues to grow in Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Singapore by forging complementary win-win partnerships in the region. In April, Tribe started to offer its content as part of Indonesia-based Telkomsel's bundled video streaming product, giving Tribe the opportunity to tap into Telkomsel's strong customer base.
Investing in Vernacular and Local content
Astro's collective strength in talent and vernacular IPs, its brands, its customer reach and enga
