Astro continues to grow amidst soft consumer sentiment

Astro Malaysia Holdings Berhad (Astro) today announced its financial results for the financial year ended 31 January 2016.

Group revenue for the period increased 5% y-o-y to RM4.1bn, leading to a 8% rise in EBITDA to RM1.4bn and a 9% increase in PATAMI to RM411.6mn, and Free Cash Flow (FCF) of RM1.07bn.

Astro Chairman Tun Zaki Azm said, “Amidst soft consumer sentiment, the Group continues to deliver growth and generate strong cashflows. The Board is pleased to declare a third interim dividend of 2.75 sen per share, 22% higher compared to the same period last year.”

Astro Chief Executive Officer Datuk Rohana Rozhan said, “We offer our customers more choices and better value in our products and services across our platforms. We added 218k new TV customers during the period under review, underpinned by strong response for NJOI (+43% to 1.2mn). This has resulted in a customer base of 4.7mn (Astro Pay-TV: 3.5mn, NJOI: 1.2mn), or 66% TV household penetration in Q3FY16 (Q3FY15: 62%).”

“Our ARPU grew to RM99.30 from RM98.50, supported by the take-up of value-added services. Customers responded well to our On Demand offering launched in October 2015, pushing up connected PVRs to 252k and Astro on the Go (AOTG) downloads to 1.8mn with an average 150 minutes weekly viewing time.”

Astro continues to develop and create homegrown engaging and valuable content.

Astro’s latest movie, ‘Polis Evo’, which is already available on the Astro service, made history as the highest grossing box office of RM18mn for a Malaysian production.

Astro’s viewership is increasing, with ‘The House’, its first digital mini-series for the millennials, registering a combined viewership of 5mn on digital and TV in just four weeks.

In the education content space, its first interactive UPSR revision drama, ‘Geng UPSR’, scored 2.7mn TV viewers, 1.5mn views on YouTube and 1.4mn revision questions answered on its iTutor app.

Astro's share of Adex and Radex grew to 34% and 60.5% respectively, supported by higher TV viewership and radio listenership.

Go Shop, its e-commerce business showed strong performance with revenue of RM126mn, following the good response to the new Chinese language channel.

In conclusion, Rohana said, “We remain focused on growing our customer base, and addressable audience by providing best in class products, services and experiences at compelling value to all. Our NJOI customers can also now watch 9 channels on AOTG. In 2016, our customers can look forward to a great sporting year with two major events, UEFA EURO 2016 and the Rio 2016 Olympics.”

“We continue to proactively manage new business realities, making disciplined choices across our portfolio to ensure market leadership and sustainable growth. 2016 will be a more challenging year with higher sports cost and a volatile foreign exchange environment. However, we are committed to delivering our dividend policy.”