July 16, 2021
Radio Jamaica Limited (RJR), for the year ended March 31, 2021, reported revenues of $5.19 billion versus $5.59 billion in 2020, contracting by 7% year over year. For the quarter, revenues closed at $1.40 billion (2020: $1.25 billion). Management noted that, “Over the course of the year, the Print segment experienced a slight rebound on both its advertising and the circulation revenues but did not revert to pre-COVID-19 levels. However, Broadcast services comprising the Audio-visual and Audio segments, over-performed their pre-COVID-19 revenues due to one-off COVID-19 related opportunities that arose during the year.”
Direct expenses decreased to $2.29 billion, this compares to the prior year’s figure of $2.59 billion, indicating a decline of 12%. For the quarter, direct expenses rose by 42% amounting to $996.27 million (2020: $701.46 million).
As such, gross profit for the year end closed at $2.90 billion relative to $3.01 billion for the corresponding period in 2020. While for the quarter, gross profit totalled $401.45 million (2020: $550.37 million).
Total expenses fell by 10% for the period under review from $3.01 billion in 2020 to $2.70 billion in 2021.
There was a 19% decrease in selling expenses to $688.91 million (2020: $853.08 million).
Administrative expenses closed at $1.40 billion (2020: $1.25 billion).
Other operating expenses amounted to $616.14 million versus $915.94 million reported in the previous comparable period.
Other income dropped to total $81.12 million compared to the 2020 figure of $98.31 million. While, for the quarter, other income closed at $31.28 million (2020: $14.04 million).
Operating profit grew by 213% for the period in review, from $90.45 million in 2020 to $283.52 million in 2021. As for the quarter, there was an operating profit of $76.73 million in 2021 relative to an operating loss of $125.50 million in the prior corresponding period.
Finance costs reported a negligible growth of 0.4% year over year to $51.05 million versus $50.83 million in the prior year. While for the quarter, finance cost amounted to $18.31 million (2020: $6.63 million).
Share of net loss of associates stood at $779,000 (2020: $148,000), followed by a profit before tax of $231.69 million relative to profit of $39.47 million booked at the end of 2020.
Taxation charge was $61.03 million reported in 2021 compared to tax credit of $1.91 million in 2020, RJR recorded net profit of $170.66 million versus net profit of $37.56 million booked in 2020. For the quarter, net profit amounted to $43.55 million relative to net loss of $96.84 million twelve months prior.
Total comprehensive income closed the period under review at $231.08 million compared to total comprehensive loss of $7.17 million in the same period last year.
The earnings per share (EPS) for the year end amounted to $0.07 relative to EPS of $0.02 in March 2020. For the quarter, EPS of $0.018 was recorded versus an LPS of $0.039 a year prior. The number of shares used in this calculation was 2,422,487,654 units. RJR stock last traded on July 15, 2021, at $1.62 with a corresponding P/E ratio of 23 times.
Balance Sheet Highlights:
RJR, as at March 31, 2021, recorded ‘Total Assets’ of $4.48 billion, a rise of 16% when compared to $3.87 billion for the previous corresponding period. This was mainly attributable to increases in “Cash and Bank Balances”, “Receivables” which closed at $725.31 million (2020: $281.82 million), and $1.21 billion (2020: $1.02 billion), respectively. These increases were, however, tempered by an 8% decrease in ‘Property, plant and equipment” which amounted to $1.34 billion (2020: $1.46 billion).
Total Shareholders’ Equity closed at $2.53 billion, up 10% from $2.30 billion last year. This resulted in a book value of $1.04 (2020: $0.95).
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