PETALING JAYA: Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd
is maintaining a cautious outlook for the current financial year ending Jan 31, 2024 (FY24) and will carefully monitor business conditions while prudently managing costs.
In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, the pay-tv operator said FY24 will see the company continuing its journey to be “the entertainment and streaming destination of choice” for Malaysians by investing in its transformation for long-term and sustainable growth.
For its first quarter ended April 30, 2023, Astro’s net profit tumbled to RM15.90mil from RM100mil in the previous corresponding period, while revenue was lower at RM891.13mil compared with RM962.09mil a year earlier.
Basic earnings per share was at 0.30 sen versus 1.92 sen previously.
Astro said the lower revenue was mainly due to the decrease in subscription revenue, advertising revenue and merchandise sales.
“Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) margin dropped by 4.9% against the corresponding quarter.
“This decline is primarily due to higher content costs, broadband costs, professional, consultancy and other fees, staff-related costs and licence, copyright and royalty fees, offset by lower merchandise costs, as a percentage of revenue.”
Astro said the decrease in net profit was due to lower Ebitda and higher net financing costs due to unfavourable unrealised foreign exchange loss arising from unhedged lease of transponder.
“However, this drop was partially offset by lower tax expenses.”
Astro also declared a first interim single-tier dividend of 0.25 sen, to be paid on July 18.
Meanwhile, group chief executive officer Euan Smith said Astro’s “bold playbook” is transforming it into a digital streaming company.
“About 25% of our customers are now enjoying our new streaming TV packs, which offer 11 premium streaming apps on top of our sparkling slate of Astro Originals and live signatures, sports, movies, news and kids.
“Our new TV packs, which can be bundled with our own Internet service, Astro Fibre, continue to see good take up as customers can seamlessly stream on demand entertainment and enjoy greater value.”
As such, Smith said Astro’s average revenue per user had grown by RM1.30 year-on-year (y-o-y) to RM98.70 in the first quarter of its current financial year.
“Astro Fibre had a great first year, driving our broadband base higher by 28% y-o-y.”
With third-party cookies soon to be phased out, Astro said it expects addressable advertising to gain traction over the long term.
