Central European Media Enterprises Ltd. Reports Results For The First Quarter Ended March 31, 2015 April 29, 2015, HAMILTON, BERMUDA Download copy (PDF, 669 kB)HAMILTON, BERMUDA, April 29, 2015 - Central European Media Enterprises Ltd. ("CME" or the "Company") (NASDAQ/Prague Stock Exchange - CETV) today announced financial results for the three months ended March 31, 2015.
Net revenues for the first quarter ended March 31, 2015 increased 9% at constant rates to US$ 126.1 million, led by 9% like-for-like growth in our television advertising revenues. OIBDA (as defined below) for the first quarter ended March 31, 2015 improved US$ 14.8 million to US$ 11.4 million as the strong revenue growth, combined with a leaner cost structure, increased profitability. Free cash flow grew US$ 14.5 million to US$ 23.3 million reflecting both the improvement in OIBDA and lower cash interest payments.
Michael Del Nin, Co-Chief Executive Officer, commented: "The results for this quarter demonstrate that the momentum that we built during last year has continued into 2015. We are particularly pleased with the breadth of the operating improvement, which was apparent across a number of our markets and has delivered a meaningful increase in OIBDA over last year despite the significant strengthening of the dollar."
Christoph Mainusch, Co-Chief Executive Officer, added: "We have maintained our audience share leadership while controlling overall costs. We intend to continue leveraging popular local content to maximize the reach we provide in excess of our commercial competitors, which should further improve our television advertising revenues when sustained economic growth resumes in the countries in which we operate."
OIBDA, which includes amortization and impairment of program rights, is determined as operating income / (loss) before depreciation, amortization of intangible assets and impairments of assets and certain unusual or infrequent items that are not considered by our chief operating decision makers when evaluating our performance as defined in "Segment Data and Non-GAAP Financial Measures" below.
Costs charged in arriving at OIBDA for the three months ended March 31, 2015 exclude a charge of US$ 18.2 million, which we recorded in the first quarter, related to an ongoing tax audit at Pro TV in Romania. We anticipate that the tax audit of Pro TV will be completed during the second quarter, and it is likely that there will be additional charges, which may be material, but it is currently not possible to estimate how much they will be.
Consolidated Results for the Three Months Ended March 31, 2015
Net revenues for the three months ended March 31, 2015 were US$ 126.1 million compared to US$ 140.7 million for the three months ended March 31, 2014. Operating loss for the three months ended March 31, 2015 was US$ (17.2) million compared to an operating loss of US$ (14.7) million for the three months ended March 31, 2014. Loss from continuing operations for the three months ended March 31, 2015 was US$ (70.2) million compared to US$ (41.0) million in 2014. Fully diluted loss from continuing operations per share for the three months ended March 31, 2015 was US$ (0.51) compared to US$ (0.30) for the three months ended March 31, 2014.
OIBDA for the three months ended March 31, 2015 was US$ 11.4 million compared to US$ (3.4) million in the same period ended March 31, 2014. OIBDA margin1 for the three months ended March 31, 2015 was 9.1% compared to (2.4)% for the three months ended March 31, 2014.
Headline consolidated results for the three months ended March 31, 2015 and March 31, 2014 were:
(US$ 000s) For the Three Months Ended March 31,
(unaudited) 2015 2014 % Actual % Lfl2
Net revenues $126,133 $140,705 (10.4)% 9.1%
OIBDA 11,448 (3,395) NM3 NM3
Operating loss (17,239) (14,682) (17.4)% (36.1)%
Loss from continuing operations (70,243) (41,000) (71.3)% (112.8)%
Fully diluted loss from continuing operations per share $(0.51) $(0.30) (70.0)% (104.0)%
1) OIBDA margin is defined as the ratio of OIBDA to net revenues as defined in "Segment Data and Non-GAAP Financial Measures" below.
2) % Lfl (like-for-like) variance reflects the impact of applying the current period average exchange rates to the prior period revenues and costs.
3) Number is not meaningful.
Teleconference and Audio Webcast Details
CME will host a teleconference and audio webcast to discuss its first quarter results on Wednesday, April 29, 2015 at 9 a.m. New York time (2 p.m. London and 3 p.m. Prague time). The audio webcast and teleconference will refer to presentation slides which will be available on CMEs website at www.cme.net prior to the call.
To access the teleconference, U.S. and international callers may dial +1-785-424-1666 ten minutes prior to the start time and reference passcode CETVQ115. The conference call will be audio webcasted via www.cme.net. It can be heard on iPads, iPhones and a range of devices supporting Android and Windows operating systems.
A digital audio replay will be available for two weeks following the call at www.cme.net.
Forward-Looking and Cautionary Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements. For all forward-looking statements, we claim the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties, many of which cannot be predicted with accuracy or are otherwise beyond our control and some of which might not even be anticipated. Forward-looking statements reflect our current views with respect to future events and because our business is subject to such risks and uncertainties, actual results, our strategic plan, our financial position, results of operations and cash flows could differ mat
