ABS-CBN Net Income Jumps 25% to PhP2.545B in 2015
Quezon—(PHStocks)—ABS-CBN Corp. (PSE: ABS), the country’s leading media and entertainment company, reported PhP2.545 billion in net income for 2015. The company’s revenues remained strong at PhP38.278 billion.
“We are happy to report that we exceeded our revenue and net income targets for 2015,” said Aldrin Cerrado, the company’s chief financial officer. “Revenues from our TV and studio business grew by over 11% compared to the previous year.” EBITDA and net income margins for this segment improved to 25.9% and 13.9%, respectively.
“Our TV production group’s continued success in creating major hits such as ‘Pangako Sa ‘Yo,’ ‘On the Wings of Love,’ and ‘FPJ’s Ang Probinsyano’ generated significant advertising revenues,” said Cerrado. “We received a further boost in revenues after we adopted a new pricing scheme in May of last year – from a fixed cost per spot, to a cost per individual rating point system.”
ABS-CBN maintained its leadership in terms of national total day audience share, which jumped to 43% as of December 31, 2015, according to data from Kantar Media.
ABS-CBN’s total assets rose to PhP70.424 billion from PhP67.237 billion in the previous year, while its equity base rose to PhP28.715 billion from PhP26.875 billion in 2014.
Star Cinema released numerous hits such as “Crazy Beautiful You,” “The Love Affair,” and “A Second Chance,” which generated more than a billion pesos in ticket sales locally and internationally.
Ron Valdueza, ABS-CBN Group CFO, stated, “We are confident that our company will deliver even stronger results this year. Our digital TV initiative has done very well, recently breaching the 1 million mark in terms of sales of ABS-CBN TVplus boxes.”
“SkyCable increased its broadband subscriber count by over 40% and has maintained a healthy average revenue per user of about P1,100. It recently obtained a license to operate direct-to-home service, which will expand its reach around the country. Sky is expected to roll out its DTH service within the year,” added Valdueza.
According to Kantar Media, the ten most watched programs nationwide for 2015 for free-to-air television were all produced by ABS-CBN. The company intends to further boost its audience share once it improves the reception of channel 2 in the Mega Manila area and Central Luzon through the distribution of its TVplus boxes.
Kantar Media uses a nationwide panel size of 2,609 urban and rural homes that represent 100% of the total Philippine TV viewing population, while the other ratings data supplier AGB Nielsen reportedly has only 2,000 homes based solely in urban areas that represent only 57% of the Philippine TV viewing population.
Various brokerage firms, including Deutsche Regis, Credit Lyonnais, Maybank ATR Kim Eng and COL Financial have included ABS-CBN in their research coverage and are positive about the company’s future prospects.