Missed our expectation, in line with consensus. MPR's 9MFY12 earnings missed our expectation  by  a  mere  4%  but  were  in line with street estimates. The group's 9M core profit  ticked  up  marginally  by  3%  y-o-y  given  the  moderate  growth  at  the  top  (revenue +2%  y-o-y).  The  mediocre  performance  is  attributable  to  the  general  market-wide slowdown  in  advertising  expenditure  (adex). On a quarterly basis, MPR's revenue had contracted by 2% given the high base in 2Q ' the Euro 2012, held in 2Q, attracted more advertisers vs the Olympics in 3Q. However, its bottom-line expanded to RM59.1m (+4% q-o-q), mainly driven by the decline in content cost related to Euro 2012 in the preceding quarter. Other takeaways were:

Maintain NEUTRAL, FV revised to RM2.39. We are trimming our FY12/FY13 earnings forecasts  slightly  by 3%/2% to realign our estimates to the company's 9M financial performance.  Our  NEUTRAL  recommendation  on  the  stock  is  retained  but  our  FV  is revised  down  to  RM2.39  based  on  an  unchanged  13x  FY13  PE.  We  are  cautious  on MPR's exposure to the volatile TV segment given that advertisers are withholding their A&P spending in view of the uncertainties clouding both our domestic political scene as well as the current global economy.

Source: OSK