Astro posts double digit revenue growth in FY13

Astro Malaysia Holdings Berhad (Astro), today released a strong set of financial results for the financial year ended 31 January 2013.

Tun Zaki Azmi, Chairman of Astro said, “Our good financial results are a reflection of the achievement of challenging targets, generating strong cash flows from operating activities."

Astro declare a second interim single-tier dividend of 1.5 sen per share and propose a final dividend of 1.0 sen per share subject to shareholders’ approval, giving a total dividend of 4.0 sen per share since listing in October last year.

“Astro continues to execute strongly on its growth strategy, delivering double-digit revenue growth of 10 percent to RM4.3 billion in FY13.” Dato’ Rohana Rozhan, Chief Executive Officer of Astro, commented on the company’s financial results.

This is as a result of new customers and good take-up of value added products and services such as HD, Personal Video Recording (PVR), Multi-room, On Demand (Astro First and Astro Best) and Superpack, which has contributed to the ARPU growth of 5% from RM89 to RM93.

Total subscribers grew by 418k (209k Pay TV and 209k Njoi), increasing Astro customer base to 3.5 million and an overall TV household penetration rate to 52 percent.

As at 31 January 2013, 1.26 million subscribers took up HD services (compared to 772k in FY12), 299k (FY12 83k) subscribed to the PVR service, 218k (FY12 116k) subscribed to Multi-room, 727k (FY12 348k) were on SuperPack, with approximately 6 million Astro First and Astro Best buys since launch.

“Whilst Astro’s investment in Astro B.yond set-top-boxes (STBs) is impacting our margin in FY13 and FY14, it will drive sustainable earnings growth thereafter.” She added.

In conclusion Dato’ Rohana said, “With Astro On-The-Go, we are now bringing Astro services to customers and non-customers in Malaysia, as well as the introduction of the service beyond Malaysia.”