SCA FY13 results ahead of expectations

Staff Writer

Southern Cross Media Group have announced their FY13 results on ASX.

The key headline is that their NPAT (net profit after tax) came in slightly ahead of the guidance given in February at the half year results ($90m – $95m) at $96.0 million.

Other key highlights :-

  • Final dividend of 4.5 cents per share fully franked brings full year payout ratio to 66%
  • Net debt for group has reduced further to $600.1m
  • #1 FM Metro Radio Network with 34.4% market share (35.3% in Q4) – see graph below
  • #1 and #2 FM breakfast shows in Melbourne
  • #1 breakfast shows in many additional markets (Sydney, Perth, Gold Coast, Newcastle etc)
  • Largest online and social media footprint in the market
  • Renewed TEN and SEVEN affiliation agreements

 

SCA CEO Rhys Holleran said:

“The market is certainly not getting any easier, yet we have delivered a commendable result on the back of a resilient radio business, with dedicated commitment from our people who perpetually seek better ways to do things.”

“Whilst we continue to operate in changing and uncertain economic conditions, we are steadfastly committed to strengthening our engagement with our fans through innovative content development, leveraging the substantial digital footprint we have built and relentless focus on operational improvement.”

This graph shows the impact the UK incident (and a Kyle incident in 2011) has had on their commercial share, but CFO Stephen Kelly says "the recovery is underway" since the events of last December.

METRO RADIO COMMERCIAL SHARE

On the Metro Share figures being down on previous years, Kelly also added that:

"The issue in the media world today is content…we really don’t care how our fans access the content. You can get everything on an iPhone. You can get television, you can get radio, you can get Instagram, Twitter, Facebook. We really don’t mind how our fans want to access our content. So for us we need to continue to invest in what we do well in this business which is create fantastic, compelling content.

Triple M are doing a wonderful job at the moment and our Today network are working very very hard to get back to the ground that they had.

We’re also operating in a massively competitive landscape so we think from a radio perspective the 36 number that we’ve said is about where we’ll still expect to sit but it’s just very competitive to maintain that. We don’t see the 38’s that occurred in FY11."

Kelly also spoke about content costs, saying:

"We have invested further in our content over the last 12 months. In fact, our content costs have gone up in salaries by about $2.4 million. We’ve continued to invest in looking for content – Merrick & The Highway Patrol, Mamamia, Dan & Maz, The Bump, NRL and continuing investment in the AFL call team are just some of the things we’ve done over the last 12 months."

When asked whether SCA had prepared a contingency budget just in case the 2Day FM licence is suspended by ACMA in the upcoming court case, Rhys Holleran replied:

"We’re very confident in our position. We are fully accrued on our position and we’re very happy with it. We have nothing else to say on the matter really."

You can see the full SCA slide show here.

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