Period 1H12
Actual vs. Expectations
1H12 net profit of RM77.5m came in within ours and the street's estimate. Its 1H12 accounted for 38.4% and 39.4% of ours and consensus full year estimate respectively.
Dividends Announced 3.0 sen single-tier dividend with an ex-date set on 3 September. This first interim dividend was slightly below our expectation as we had earlier forecasted a payout of 4.9 sen.
Key Result Highlights
YoY, 1H12 revenue was flat by +1% at RM781m due mainly to the shortfall from the weak 1Q12. The operating profit was down by 4% to RM118m as a result of higher content costs and overheads. As a result of the lower EBIT, the group's PAT was down marginally by 2% to RM78m.
QoQ, 2Q12 revenue surged by 33% to RM447m thanks to higher contribution from all segments namely TV (+58%); Print (+21%); Radio (+8%); and Outdoor (+5%). The strong recovery in the adex revenue was mainly spurred by the EURO 2012 event, lower discount rates and a general improvement in consumer sentiment. Together with more stringent cost measurements, the EBIT surged by 154% to RM85m.
Outlook Cautiously optimistic. We expect the adex sentiment to remain strong in 3Q12 due to London 2012 Olympics and Hari Raya festival.
The 4Q12 outlook, however, remains bleaks at this juncture given the uncertainty of the General Election and the persisting Europe debts dilemma.
Change to Forecasts
We have fine-tuned our FY12, FY13 and FY14 net profits by -0.1%, 1.1% and 1.2% respectively to RM202m, RM220m and RM228m respectively. We have cut the FY12 DPS forecast to 10.4 sen from 12.9 sen previously.
Rating Maintain MARKET PERFORM
Valuation Maintaining our TP at RM2.40 based on an unchanged targeted FY13 PER of 13.4x (5-year average forward PER).
Risks CY12 gross adex growth coming in below our expectation of RM11.8b (+10.0% YoY).