MANILA, Philippines—ABS-CBN Corp., the media holding company of the Lopez family, posted a 7-percent profit increase in the first quarter as stronger consumer sales from Skycable, movies and global subscriptions helped offset a decline in advertising revenues.
ABS-CBN said in a stock exchange filing that its profit hit P538 million, while total reached P8.2 billion—3.4 percent higher than that of the previous year.
In the first three months, 49 percent, P3.98 billion, of ABS-CBN’s revenues came from advertisements. It was an 8.8-percent decline from that of 2013. Consumer sales, which rose 18 percent to P4.2 billion, accounted for the rest, briefing materials from the company showed.
“We are off to a good start in 2014,” said Aldrin Cerrado, ABS-CBN chief financial office. “ABS-CBN is the clear leader in terms of national audience share, and we continue to capture a relatively large chunk of total advertising expenditure in the country.”
The company reported that costs and expenses rose 2.8 percent to P7.41 billion, slower than the revenue growth rate of 3.4 percent for the quarter.
Total assets rose to P65.1 billion from the end of last year’s P58.0 billion, while its equity base increased to P26 billion from P25.9 billion in 2013.—Miguel R Camus