May 2010 Financial News

OCM records $15.6m profit

May 01, 2010

One Caribbean Media Ltd has recorded a group net profit before tax of $15.6 million for its first quarter ended March 31.

This was an increase of 16 per cent from $13.3 million in the first quarter of 2009, OCM chairman Sir Fred Gollop said yesterday.

’Despite the continued uncertainty in the global and regional environment, the group was able to achieve this growth in profit because the measures taken during 2009 to control and reduce expenses have begun to take effect,’ Sir Fred said in a statement.

Revenues of $103.7 million were one per cent below last year’s $104.4 million, ’reflecting the weakness of the economies in which we operate’, he added.

Profit attributable to shareholders of $11.6 million was more than the $9.6 million in 2009, representing a 20 per cent increase.

’We are encouraged by the positive signs of recovery in the developed economies and expect that this will translate into improvement in the markets in which we operate,’ Sir Fred said.

OCM produced a profit after tax of $74.7 million for its financial year ended 2009, compared to $89.8 million in 2008.

OCM owns and operates the Trinidad Express newspapers and CCN TV6 as well as the Nation newspaper in Barbados and radio stations in Trinidad and Tobago and Grenada.

Earlier yesterday during the group’s annual general meeting at Express House, Port of Spain, the media group’s chief executive Dr Terrence Farrell projected a cyclical upturn in the economy and in advertising revenues between this year and 2011.

’We anticipate that as confidence returns to the markets here in the Caribbean that we will see upturn in advertising revenues and you will see a better performance,’ he said.

He added that the effect of falling Gross Domestic Product regionally and oil and gas prices collapsing locally was a decline in revenues, especially advertising which dropped ten per cent from $512.6 million in 2008 to $460.2 million in 2009.

He noted the group remained profitable generating a return on equity of 13.4 per cent.

Farrell said that the global economy was beginning to turn and advertising revenues in developed country markets were beginning to turn upwards, though there were still challenges in Europe and the US.

He said that in the media business 90 per cent of revenues were from advertising which are directly affected by downturns in the economy.

’So what we have, as we go forward, we have to look at increasing revenues from other sources, some sources that are more sustainable, that are less cyclically dependent.’

Farrell said that OCM was looking at the Jamaica market, focusing on major sporting and entertainment events in television in the face of competition from cable TV.


Source:
Julien Neaves jneaves@trinidadexpress.com
Trinidad Express
Saturday May 1, 2010

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/nart?id=161648101