Music Broadcast Limited (MBL), which operates India’s Radio City network, has reported its financial results for the quarter ended December 31, 2018.
The key highlights include topline growth of 14% YoY at Rs. 870.2 million ($12.21 million), EBITDA grew by 23% YoY to Rs. 285.9 million ($4 million) at a margin of 32.9% – an improvement by 223 bps.
Its PBT grew by 45% YoY to Rs. 24.93 Cr at a margin of 28.7% showing an improvement by 607 bps.
In the first nine months of FY 19, the company has shown a topline growth of 9% YoY at Rs. 2.43 billion ($34 million), its EBITDA grew 16% YoY at Rs. 812 million ($11.4 million) Cr and the margin at 33.4% with an improvement of 208 bps. Its PBT grew 28% YoY at Rs. 673.7 million ($9.45 million), margin at 27.7% showing improvement by 413 bps
Commenting on the results Apurva Purohit, Director said: “We have delivered not only a higher growth than expected with revenue at Rs. 870 million with a growth of 14% YoY, but this has been the best ever quarter of absolute revenue performance for MBL. This growth was a result of;
- A rate increase of 11% in legacy markets
- Inventory utilization in the Phase III markets improved to 53%
- Festive advertising kicking in and, sectors like Government, Ecommerce & Auto growing
- On an average our inventory utilization for 39 stations moved up to 60-70%
Our 28 legacy stations are running at 38% margin and some of our core markets are running at 45% margin levels.
As you can see the PBT has grown three times the revenues; reiterating the advantage of our fixed cost model, and thus operating leverage playing out which we believe is indicative of the future as costs getting normalized in new stations.
Keeping in line with the group philosophy of rewarding the shareholders, we have successfully completed the buyback of Rs. 570 million, buying 17,45,079 shares at an average price of Rs. 326.61 per equity share thereby representing 99.99% of the maximum buyback size in this quarter. Also, we are seeking approval from shareholders for sub- division of shares from existing face value of Rs. 10 to Rs. 2 per share.
It gives me great pleasure to tell you that we have delivered a double digit CAGR growth of 15% in revenue for last three years which is almost double than that of the industry, as reported by various studies. This growth has been as per our commitment to all our shareholders and as promised during the IPO. Again, Profit before tax has outpaced the growth of revenue, showing a CAGR growth of 34% in this period too.
The Economy was affected by certain Macro-Economic headwinds in the last few quarters but we are clearly seeing signs of revival as spending across categories and government increases in the coming months. Going ahead, we are confident that we will be able to sustain our current growth level and grow our operating margins. Further, we believe that the radio industry is a nascent and efficient medium for advertisers and is poised to benefit the most from the upsurge.”