ABS-CBN net profit jumped 23% to P1.9B

ABS-CBN Corp., the media holding company of the Lopez family, said its net income in the nine months through September rose 23 percent to P1.9 billion, led by gains for its television and studio business.

ABS-CBN said in a stock exchange filing that revenues during the period hit P27.8 billion, up 11 percent.

“Given our growth trajectory, we are likely to hit record revenues by yearend and we should be in a strong position to build on this given that next year is an election year,” Aldrin Cerrado, ABS-CBN chief financial officer, said.

“With one quarter to go, we are confident that we will succeed in meeting our earnings guidance of P2.4 billion for 2015,” he added.

“We have continued to implement measures to control costs and increase efficiencies where possible,” Cerrado said. “Our production costs have gone down on a per-hour-of-program basis for the first nine months compared to the same period last year.”

Total assets rose to P70.7 billion as of the end of September 2015 from P67.2 billion as of end last year, the company said. Its equity base increased to P27.9 billion as of the end of September this year.

“For the first nine months, our TV and studio operations turned in a very strong performance with a net income of P3 billion, 39-percent higher compared to the same period last year, improving margins to 14.8 percent from 11.5 percent,” Rolando Valdueza, group chief financial officer of ABS-CBN, said.

ABS-CBN also cited gains across its new businesses.

Kidzania Manila, which opened last August at the Fort Bonifacio Global City, “exceeded expectations” with more than 75,000 visitors since opening day. More than 40 establishments were in operation, ABS-CBN said.

ABS-CBN TVplus digital boxes are now in more than 800,000 households and the company expects to breach the 1 million mark by yearend.