Asian Pay Television Trust (APTT) has reported revenue of $63.7 million for the 3QFY2024 ended Sept 30, 3% lower y-o-y.
Revenue for basic cable TV fell by 5.2% y-o-y to $43.5 million mainly due to lower subscription revenue from a decline in the number of subscribers and lower average revenue per user (ARPU). In constant currency terms compared with the NT$, revenue for basic cable TV would have been down by 1.2%.
3QFY2024 revenue for premium digital TV also fell by 9.3% y-o-y to $2.6 million, with higher premium digital TV revenue generating units (RGUs) but offset by ARPUs, which stood marginally lower by NT$1 (4.1 cents) q-o-q. In constant currency terms, revenue for premium digital TV would have been down by 5.3%.
This was slightly offset by higher broadband revenue of $17.6 million, 3.9% up y-o-y. The higher broadband revenue was due to an increase in broadband RGUs during the quarter. This segment’s revenue would have increased by 7.9% in constant currency terms.
Ebitda for the 3QFY2024 fell by 1.4% y-o-y to $37.4 million even though ebitda margin rose by 1 percentage point y-o-y to 58.8%.
In the 9MFY2024, total revenue fell by 5.7% y-o-y to $189.5 million as revenues for basic cable TV and premium digital TV fell by 9.4% y-o-y and 7.6% y-o-y to $129.0 million and $7.6 million respectively. Broadband for the nine months rose by 5.1% y-o-y to $52.9 million.
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Ebitda for the 9MFY2024 fell by 3.8% y-o-y to $111.6 million even though ebitda margin increased by 1.2 percentage points to 58.9%.
Referring to APTT’s quarterly results, Somnath Adak, CEO of the trustee-manager notes that APTT’s broadband segment is starting to “cushion the impact” of the decline in its basic cable TV business. He adds that the trust is “moving in the right direction” where it aims to grow cash flows from its broadband business to a level that will consistently more than offset the decline in its basic cable TV business.
In the 9MFY2024, APTT’s trustee-manager repaid $39 million in net debt. It says it expects to repay another $20 million of debt in the next six months until March 2025.
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“Discussions with lenders to refinance both our onshore and offshore facilities is progressing well. We hope to bring at least a sizeable portion of our more expensive offshore debt back onshore to save on interest costs,” says Adak.
“The refinancing exercise is slated for completion by mid-2025, which would then reset our principal repayments schedules and financial covenants,” he adds. “We are also actively monitoring for opportunities to enter into new interest rate swaps that will protect against interest cost risks beyond June next year. Meanwhile, we will continue to bring down our debt levels and strengthen our balance sheet, through our focused debt management programme.”
In its outlook statement, APTT says it does not expect to see growth in its basic cable TV RGUs due to Taiwan’s saturated cable TV market. However, it expects the number of premium digital TV and broadbane RGUs to continue increasing in 2024.
It adds that the trust’s total revenue will be influenced by its ability to maintain ARPUs, which will “remain under pressure” due to market dynamics.
“The decline in demand for home shopping and competition from internet retailing will continue to impact channel leasing revenue. The trustee-manager is managing every expense line item very closely. Total operating expenses in 2024 are expected to be in line with 2023,” says APTT in its Nov 12 statement.
APTT’s board has also reaffirmed its distribution guidance for the 2HFY2024 ending Dec 31 of 0.525 cents per unit. The distribution is expected to be paid in March 2025.
Units in APTT closed 0.2 cents lower or 2.53% down at 7.7 cents on Nov 12.
