Astro group CEO Datuk Rohana Rozhan said in the statement:
KUALA LUMPUR: Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd
said it is reviewing its business after the pay TV operator reported its lowest annual net profit in five years.
The media company expects financial year ending Jan 31, 2020 (FY20) to be another challenging year.
Astro, in a statement today, said net profit in the fourth quarter ended Jan 31, 2019 (Q4FY19) fell 35% to RM118.4mil as revenue remained steady at RM1.368bil.
Full year earnings stood at RM462.9mil compared with RM770.6mil made a year earlier.
The company has declared a fourth interim dividend of 1.5 sen a share, that lifted its full year payout to 9 sen a share.
In FY18, total payout was 12.5 sen a share.
Astro said its pay TV average revenue per user (ARPU), a key measure of its income, was steady at RM99.9 in FY19, but earnings was affected by higher sports content cost, one-off employee separation scheme costs and unrealised forex losses on finance lease liabilities.
“Given the challenging operating environment, Astro is reviewing its business so that we remain efficient and agile to serve our customers better," its chief executive officer Henry Tan said.
"Our focus will remain on serving our 5.7 million Malaysian homes and 23 million individuals via our pay TV and NJOI platforms with differentiated and compelling content," he said.
As part of its revenue diversification, Tan said the group continues to leverage on its customer base to offer targeted marketing and advertising solutions enabled by data and analytics, to drive advertising and commerce revenue
"Revenue adjacencies such as commerce, adex, content licensing and theatrical sales are showing promising growth trajectory,” he said.
