Ceske radiokomunikace’s nine-month parent company CAS results, released Friday morning, contained no major surprises, as operating performance (sales, EBITDA and EBIT) basically met our expectations, with only bottom-line pretax earnings higher than expected.
9M parent company figures, CAS, in CZK mil.:
Sales 1,556 (+5.5%)
EBITDA 735 (-2.4%)
EBIT 64 (-69%)
Pretax income 61 (-90%)
The parent company’s growth pattern was the same as in the previous quarters: telecommunications revenue (particularly data transmission) pulling the top-line growth with TV and radio broadcast revenues stagnating. The relatively weak top-line growth, combined with weaker margins and higher operating costs, resulted in declining EBITDA and the significant increase in depreciation led to a dramatic fall in operating profit. The financial part of the P&L was affected by one-off items such as the cost of guarantees related to the unsuccessful bidding for the CMobil option earlier this year, and the absence this year of a large forex gain. The above led to a large y-to-y decline in bottom-line profits although the fall was slightly less pronounced than we had expected.
(Ondřej Daťka)