Astro Malaysia Holdings Berhad | Result highlights for the third quarter of the financial year ending 31 January2023 (Q3FY23) [All comparisons refer to the second quarter of FY23 (Q2FY23) quarter-on-quarter (q-o-q) comparison, except as noted]:
· Normalised PATAMI* at RM73mn; PATAMI at RM6mn impacted by US Dollar strength
· Adex +27% q-o-q to RM110mn
· ARPU steady at RM97.40
· Third interim dividend of 0.75 sen per share
Henry Tan, Group CEO of Astro said: “Our revenue grew q-o-q to RM926mn, driven by strong Adex performance in Q3FY23 that increased 27% q-o-q to RM110mn. We recorded Normalised PATAMI of RM73mn in Q3FY23; PATAMI was impacted by higher unrealised forex loss due to transponder finance lease liabilities as the US Dollar appreciated. The Group remained cash generative and proactive in its capital management. Nevertheless, given the macroeconomic conditions and foreign currency volatility, the Board has declared a third interim dividend of 0.75 sen per share. We continue to reinvest into our transformation for long-term and sustainable growth.”
Euan Smith, Group CEO-Designate of Astro said: “We continue to seize growth opportunities in the broadband space. We recently launched BIZfibre to offer our enterprise customers including SMEs one-stop connectivity and entertainment solution at greater value. BIZfibre offers faster, more reliable and stable connectivity and is the perfect complement to our commercial TV Packs, which feature live sports, the biggest TV shows, blockbuster movies and breaking news. BIZfibre will contribute to the growth of our broadband and enterprise customer base. InQ3FY23, Astro’s broadband base increased by 34% y-o-y as more customers bundled broadband with content for convenience and value.”
Astro continues to offer more choice and convenience with its latest value-added TV packages, Sports Plus and Movies Plus with Netflix included. In line with its streaming aggregation strategy, Astro added the BBC Player app onto the Ultra Box, enabling viewers to stream their favourite programmes from five BBC global brands - BBC First, BBC Brit, BBC Earth, BBC Lifestyle and CBeebies. beINSPORTS CONNECT, iQIYI and TVB Anywhere+ will be available on the Ulti Box next week while Viu, a pan-regional video streaming service, will soon join its 8 existing streaming services.
Key Highlights
· Strong Engagement Across Multiple Streaming Platforms: Over 730K homes are already on the Ultra and Ulti Boxes, which can run on both satellite and broadband, while Astro GO has 562kmonthly active users, up 6% y-o-y, with average weekly viewing time of over 3hours driven largely by sports and Astro’s own content. On Demand shows streamed grew 22% y-o-y to 473mn
· Growth in Adex: In Q3FY23, total Adex rose 27% q-o-q toRM110mn, underpinned by TV Adex, Radex, Digital Adex and Addressable Advertising. Astro Radio brands continued to rank No.1 across all languages, registering 17.7mn weekly radio listeners (FM and digital). SYOK, Malaysia’s most popular audio entertainment app, saw its podcast monthly listens increase by 67% y-o-y to 1.3mn. Radex, TV Adex and Digital Adex share stood at 73%, 32% and 3% respectively. Astro digital brands registered 10.3mn monthly unique visitors
· Astro Originals Hit New Milestone:
o Astro Originals, One Cent Thief is now the #1 most streamed show On Demand. Latest political thriller Kudeta is also getting positive response
o Astro Shaw’s Mechamato Movie hit the local cinemas on 8 December and has grossed RM10mn in box office sales in the first 6 days
o Live signature shows enthralled viewers with fan-favourite Gegar Vaganza S9registering 1.9mn TV viewership and 397k shows streamed; while Muzikal Lawak Superstar 3 recorded 1.4mn TV viewership and 1.0mn shows streamed
o Astro AWANI emerged as the No.1 news destination for GE15 with 6.9mn cumulative unique audience. On social media, AWANI garnered 85.2mncombined views across platforms
o FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 matches dominated the top 10 most viewed events on Astro
o CBeebies (Ch 620) will be available on the Kids Pack with favourites including Bluey, Hey Duggee, Go Jetters, JoJo & Gran Gran, Thomas & Friends, Teletubbies and many more. All Astro customers can enjoy a preview of CBeebies from now till 31 January 2023
· sooka Winning Over Millennials: Our streaming service, sooka, which has over 21k hours of content library, achieved772mn minutes watched to date with 83% users on mobile. Sales of World Cup Passon both sooka and NJOI have exceeded targets and have boosted big screen viewing on sooka
· Positive Sustainability Impact: The Group adopts a holistic and comprehensive approach to sustainability to enable long-term growth by leveraging on our multiple platforms and content to create value, both tangible and intangible. And we do so while upholding good governance, environmental stewardship, talent management and community investment
o Committed to achieve its Carbon Neutrality goal by 2040, the Group has started initiatives to develop a Climate Roadmap which will be completed next year
o As part of community development, Astro partnered Food Aid Foundation to organise the #KamiCare campaign to provide care packs to 400 families affected by the floods
o Ranked No.1 in the Telecommunications & Media category at the Industry Excellence Award for CG Disclosure and No.11 overall in the list of Top 100 Companies for CG Disclosure 2021 at the MSWG-ASEAN Corporate Governance Award 2021, organised by the Minority Shareholders Watch Group (MSWG). At the ASEAN level, Astro was recognised as one of the recipients of the ASEAN Asset Class Award under the 2021 ASEAN Corporate Governance Scorecard Awards
o Astro continues to be guided by its ESG pillars namely responsible business, education for all, voice for good, caring for our environment and community development. Astro Kasih was awarded Gold for its Education for All initiatives recently at the Malaysia PR Awards 2022
Outlook
Tan said, “Through the New AstroExperience, we are committed to realise our vision to be The EntertainmentDestination for Malaysians encompassing:
· delivering the bestcontent experience across all platforms;
· becoming Malaysia’sNo.1 aggregator of the best streaming and lifestyle services;
· enhancing local contentwith more premium Astro Originals;
· seizing opportunities for adjacencies in digital, broadband, advertising and commerce; and
· leveraging digital, data and technology to reimagine our business models.”
“Going forward we are continuously investing in our transformation for long-term and sustainable growth, focusing on content, broadband, streaming, customer experience, data, addressable advertising and technology to better serve customers. Alongside progressive user interface and experience enhancements, we are committed to making kids’ viewing safer. An increasing number of global streaming apps have been integrated onto our flagship Ultra Box and included in our new Astro TV packages, for the best big screen viewing experience. We expect to continue aggregating the best streaming apps and adding on lifestyle apps which are relevant for Malaysians in the near future. Addressable Advertising is gaining traction in the market and is being enhanced with a unified audience measurement on Linear, On Demand and OTT. We expect Addressable Advertising to have increased industry adoption over time and to continue growing into the future.”
On 16 November 2022, Astro won a landmark anti-piracy case against a commercial establishment in the Klang Valley area. This is encouraging as it creates awareness and rightful content consumption behaviour. Ongoing efforts with authorities will continue and the Group expects results of these to be accretive.
Macroeconomic conditions including uncertain global growth outlook, rising interest rates, inflation, as well as global geopolitical events with ongoing implications to supply chains; are expected to have an ensuing impact on households and businesses. The Group maintains a cautious outlook and will monitor business conditions, whilst prudently managing costs. It expects market volatility to remain in the shorter term, both in terms of foreign currency volatility and interest rates, and will be managing these with hedge instruments over time.
*Normalised PATAMI excludes post-tax impact of unrealised forex gain/(loss) due to mark-to-market revaluation of transponder-related finance lease liabilities.
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