Mediaset Plans to Keep Dividend Unchanged
March 22 2016 - 3:10PM
Dow Jones News
ROME—Mediaset SpA, Italy's biggest private TV broadcaster by
market share, said it plans to pay an unchanged dividend on 2015
results compared with the year earlier, despite net profit tumbling
83% due to a special tax charge.
In a statement, Mediaset said Tuesday net profit slipped to €4.0
million ($4.5 million) from €23.7 million in 2014 after taking a
€24.9 million special tax charge. If it excluded the one-off
charge, net profit would have been €29.0 million, it added.
Net consolidated revenue gained 3.2% at €3.52 billion as
advertising picked up after Italy emerged in 2015 from its longest
postwar recession. Higher revenue strengthens hopes of a trend
reversal after years of declines.
Domestic advertising revenue in the first two months of 2016
rose at levels posted in the last quarters of 2015, Mediaset said.
In 2015 third quarter, advertising revenue in Italy grew 3.1%.
The Milan-based company, which is controlled by the family of
Italy's former prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, said it would
propose to shareholders a dividend of €0.02 per share on 2015
earnings. The dividend is unchanged from the previous year.
Mediaset said its earnings before interest and tax, EBIT, fell
7% to €231.4 million, while net debt lowered to €859.4 million as
of December, compared with €861.3 million a year earlier.
Mediaset is spending on programs aimed at enticing viewers to
its pay pay-TV platform, such as the Champions League soccer
rights.
Monday, Mr. Berlusconi told an Italian radio station that
France's Vivendi SA is interested in working with Mediaset on
content.
Mediaset shares closed 1.2% higher at €3.78, outperforming
Italy's unchanged benchmark index.
Last week, a Milan appeals court sentenced Mr. Berlusconi's son,
Mediaset's Deputy Chairman and Chief Executive Pier Silvio
Berlusconi, to jail for tax evasion over broadcasting rights
allegedly bought by Mediaset through offshore companies. Mediaset
denied any wrongdoing by its executives.
Write to Liam Moloney at liam.moloney@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 22, 2016 14:55 ET (18:55 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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