Star Media Group records pre-tax profit of RM146.21mil

VHE

PETALING JAYA: Star Media Group Bhd registered a pre-tax profit of RM146.21mil on a revenue of RM932.12mil for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2016.

In the preceding year, the group’s pre-tax profit and revenue were at RM170.07mil and RM1.02bil, respectively.

In the fourth quarter, Star Media Group registered a pre-tax profit of RM47.52mil on a turnover of RM260.35mil. In the corresponding period last year, the pre-tax profit and turnover were at RM60.35mil and RM280.77mil, respectively.

The company said the challenging macro-economic conditions contributed to the lower contributions from the print and digital as well as the radio segments.

The print and digital segment, which is the mainstay of the group, recorded a lower pre-tax profit of RM16.32mil in the quarter on the back of newspaper advertising revenue falling 15.6%.

The group’s Cityneon Holdings Ltd registered an increase in revenue to RM106.97mil in the fourth quarter from RM89.79mil in the similar period last year, largely due to the contribution from its thematic and intellectual property rights (IPR) business.

Pre-tax profit for the period came in at RM7.14mil, a marginal decrease compared to the corresponding period last year.

The IPR rights give Cityneon the global rights to showcase characters from Avengers S.T.A.T.I.O.N and Transformers in permanent and travelling exhibitions with interactive features.

The exhibitions, which use virtual reality technology, is going to complete the show in Singapore and will look at openings in Taiwan and Australia this year. The company has also set its sights on China and the Middle East this year.

During the year, Star Media Group set aside RM21.36mil in impairment losses on goodwill and other investments. However, it was offset by the gain on the disposal of two radio stations – RedFM and Capital FM – and the deregistration of a subsidiary company that amounted to RM61.33mil.

Going forward, Star Media Group said the media-related segments would continue to enhance their respective platforms to extend their reach to wider audiences by continuing to provide more bundled products and creative buys to advertisers.

The group is also expanding aggressively into the digital business. Towards this end, Star Media Group has embarked on its next digital transformation plan with the launch of dimsum.my in November last year.

Dimsum is the group’s video-on-demand service and provides mainly Asian content in three languages – Bahasa Malaysia, Mandarin and English. The group said the next stage would be to introduce more Malay and Indian content.