Thursday, 31 May 2012

MEDIAC (FV RM1.60 - BUY) FY12 Results Review: A Record-Breaking Year Indeed


Media Chinese’s (MCIL) full-year FY12 core earnings of RM194m were largely in line with our and consensus estimates. It also declared a second interim dividend of 4.6 sen, bringing the  total dividend  declared in FY12 to 8.1 sen,  which translates into a lucrative dividend yield of 7%. We are upgrading our revenue and earnings forecast for FY13 slightly by 0.7% and 2% respectively in view of the upcoming ad-friendly events  in 2HCY12. We continue to like  the management’s prudent cost control efforts and the healthy adex growth for the Chinese newspaper segment. As such, we reiterate our BUY call with  a  FV of RM1.60 (previously RM1.54) based on 13x FY13 PER. MCIL remains our top sector pick.

A stronger year as expected. MCIL posted a strong set of results which saw revenue, PBT and core earnings rising by 7%, 16% and 9% to RM1.5bn, RM260m and RM194m respectively. The group’s core business of publishing and printing recorded a healthy 6% y-o-y growth, attributed mainly to its sturdy Malaysia operations which experienced a 7% y-o-y growth. Its Hong Kong operations also improved 6% y-o-y thanks to the higher ad-dollar activities emanating from the property sector. MCIL’s travel segment also grew 15% y-o-y with a strong surge in demand for its long-haul tours to destinations such as Europe and Australia. On a quarterly basis, the group’s revenue and core earnings slipped by 18% and 22%, which we deem in line with our expectations owing to seasonality factors.  The  small gap between Chinese New Year in Jan 2012 and Christmas in Dec 2011, as well as the long holiday season had shortened the advertising &  promotion  window for advertisers.  Note that MCIL  has reported its numbers based on an exchange rate of RM3.06 as at 31 March 2012. If we were to use the average exchange rate of RM3.11 for FY12, revenue and core earnings would come in at RM1.48bn and RM197m (2% and 1.5% higher respectively). Please see results Table below

Margins improved, outlook remains healthy. MCIL’s EBITDA and PBT margins expanded by 120bps and 200bps respectively, thanks to the healthy adex growth for the Chinese segment and management’s prudent cost control efforts. Moving forward, we foresee that the group will continue to report healthy growth on the back of aggressive advertising and promotion activities among hypermarkets and fast-moving consumer goods companies during upcoming major ad-friendly events such as Euro 2012 and the 2012 Olympics. We also applaud MCIL for coming up with creatively bundled offerings, especially for ad-friendly sport events, whereby MCIL organizes crowd-pulling events for clients who advertise on its publications to increase the brand visibility of their products.

Source: OSK

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