ASTRO POSTS DOUBLE DIGIT GROW

ASTRO POSTS DOUBLE DIGIT GROWTH

Result highlights for the first 3 months of the financial year ending 31 January 2015:

Revenue 11% y-o-y to RM1.25bn driven by:

Pay-TV customers 5% to 3.47mn

NJOI customers 99% to 526k

ARPU 3% to RM97.1

Adex 6% to RM122mn

EBITDA 16% to RM441mn

PAT 13% to RM129mn

FCF of RM282mn

First interim dividend of 2.25 sen per share

KUALA LUMPUR, 19 June 2014 - Astro Malaysia Holdings Berhad (Astro) yesterday announced its first quarter results of the financial year ending 31 January 2015, where it reported a double-digit growth of 11% in revenue to RM1.25bn, from RM1.13bn in the same period last year. During the period, the Company's EBITDA rose 16% to RM441mn from RM381mn while its PAT increased by 13% to RM129mn.

Tun Zaki Azmi, Chairman of Astro said, The Company enters a new financial year by continuing to execute on its growth strategies while maintaining its strong cash generation capabilities. The Board of Directors is pleased to declare an interim dividend of 2.25 sen per share, 12.5% higher compared with the interim dividend of 2.0 sen per share in Q1FY14.

Dato' Rohana Rozhan, Chief Executive Officer of Astro said, Our total customer base grew by 416k y-o-y to 4.0mn in Q1FY15, with Pay-TV customers increasing by 154k and NJOI customers by 262k. ARPU rose to RM97.1 from RM94.2, primarily driven by strong take-up of value added products and services by customers on the Astro B.yond platform.

Advertising income grew by 6% to RM122mn, from RM115mn a year earlier, driven by its growing presence in Malaysian TV homes ( 5ppt y-o-y to 58%), increasing share of TV viewership ( 3ppt y-o-y to 47%) and sustained #1 position in radio listenership in Bahasa Malaysia, English, Chinese and Tamil.

Customer demand for HD, PVR, VOD and Astro on the Go continues to be strong. 1.78mn customers now enjoy Astro channels in HD (Q4FY14: 1.68mn), 585k have PVR function (Q4FY14: 532k), 335k are Multiroom customers (Q4FY14: 312k) and 918k are on Astro Superpack (Q4FY14: 902k) while 244k have taken up Astro Valuepack (Q4FY14: 196k).

Astro's Q1FY15 key performance indicators:

( 000) Q4FY14 Q3FY14 Change % Q4FY13 Change %

Pay TV Customers

3,470

3,442

1 3,316

5

NJOI

526

442

19 264

99

Customers on Astro B.yond Platform

2,953

2,883

2 2,182

35

HD take-up

1,780

1,675

6 1,397

27

Customers on PVR

585

532

10 343

71

Multiroom take-up

335

312

7 245

37

Superpack take-up

918

902

2 794

16

Valuepack take up

(Launched in April 2013)

244

196 24 35 597

ARPU (RM)

97.1

96.0

1 94.2

3

Churn

10%

10%

- 8%

2pp

Astro original content is resonating well with our customers. The number of shows with over one million viewers tripled to 15. Our hit comedy show, Maharaja Lawak had close to 2 million viewers, surpassing even primetime FTA programmes on the Astro platform. During the quarter, we launched a new and improved vernacular based user interface on our STBs, which is now available to Astro B.yond customers. Our journey continues as we aspire to provide seamless access to all our content across the Watch, Listen, Read and Play' spaces across all platforms and on all devices. Our Astro on the Go App has recorded 966k downloads since launch (Q1FY14: 510k). It is clear that Malaysians are responding positively to the flexibility and convenience of being able to watch up to 30 linear channels, LIVE sports events, catch-up and video-on-demand anytime, anywhere. They are spending more time watching Astro content on the go, with weekly viewing time increased by 144% to 88 minutes from 36 minutes a year earlier. Over 300k views were registered for the live broadcast of the finals of the 2014 Thomas Cup on Astro on the Go, said Dato' Rohana Rozhan.

The M3B satellite launch has been delayed to later in the year. As such, the Group will defer the introduction of additional channels until new transponder capacity becomes available.

In conclusion, Dato' Rohana Rozhan said, By putting customer and content first, Astro has made real progress and we continue to satisfy the entertainment demands of a broad customer base. We remain committed to make available all of our resources to grow our base, ARPU and share of Adex.

LINK:	http://www.astro.com.my/mediaroom/articles/ASTRO-POSTS-DOUBLE-DIGIT-GR...
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