Macquarie Media profits up 21%

Despite some challenging market conditions and the absence of Alan Jones for part of the reporting period, Macquarie Media Limited has announced good financial results for the year ended June 30 2017, with profits after tax rising 21% to $17.32 million for the year.

In a statement to the ASX, Macquarie Media highlighted earnings are now double the combined earnings of Fairfax Radio Network and Macquarie Radio Network prior to the merging of the two companies in 2015 to form MML.
 
Revenue share was stable eventhough 2GB star Alan Jones was off-air for four months recovering from back surgery, and a new format, Talking Lifestyle, was launched  across three stations. First cab off the rank for the new format was 2UE, followed by the company’s Melbourne and Brisbane Magic stations, which switched to the format in February.

Total revenue was $113 million (down 2% on last year) and expenditure was $106 million (down 5% on last year).

On January 19 this year, the group also completed the sale of Radio 2CH for $5,560,000.

The company also recently sold Satellite Music Australia on the last day of the financial year, but, due to financial reporting requirements, the $4 million sale price was not included in these results and will be incorporated into the company’s 2018 results.

Macquarie Media also noted last month that the benefit of the government’s reduction in licence fees would be worth about $2.7 million in reduced expenses for the company.

The company declared a final dividend of 4.0 cents per share, full franked to all shareholders registered at 1 September 2017.

The share price has been rising steadily for the past six months and shares today traded at about $1.20

 

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