SINGAPORE (Nov 13): The trustee-manager of Asian Pay Television Trust (APTT) has declared distribution per unit of 1.625 cents per unit for the 3Q ended September, unchanged from a year ago.
The business trust saw its total revenue rise 6.5% to $84.5 million during the quarter, from $79.3 million a year ago, on the back of higher revenue across all its business segments.
Basic cable TV revenue grew 7.7% to $68.0 million in 3Q17, mainly due to higher non-subscription revenue generated from the leasing of television channels to third parties.
Premium digital cable TV revenue was up 3.4% to $3.9 million while Broadband revenue rose 1.7% to $12.6 million during the quarter.
EBIDTA grew 8.9% to $50.8 million in 3Q17, with EBITDA margin up 1.3 percentage points to 60.1%.
As at end September, cash and cash equivalents stood at $54.9 million.
Looking ahead, the group says its focus in 2017 remains on driving growth in cash flows through up-selling and cross-selling of services across Taiwan Broadband Communications group’s subscriber base.
Total revenue for 2017 is anticipated to be influenced by continued weakness in the Taiwanese economy and a marginally lower Basic cable TV rate.
Ignoring the impact of foreign exchange, overall EBITDA for the full year 2017 is expected to be in line with a year ago.
The trustee-manager adds that distribution for 2018 is expected to be consistent with 2017 at 6.5 cents per unit. It is anticipated that the distribution will continue to be paid in quarterly instalments of 1.625 cents per unit.
Units of APTT closed half a cent higher at 60 cents on Friday.
