HONG KONG (dpa-AFX) - Multi-platform digital media company Focus Media Holding Ltd. (FMCN) said Monday that its first quarter profit jumped 85% from last year, as revenue surged 36% mainly on strength of the company's poster frame and in-store networks.
The company's quarterly earnings per share, excluding items, also came in above analysts' expectations as did its quarterly revenue.
The Central, Hong Kong-based company reported net income for the first quarter of $37.9 million or $0.28 per ADS, compared to $20.5 million or $0.15 per ADS for the year-ago quarter.
Excluding items, adjusted net income for the first quarter was $61.6 million or $0.46 per ADS, compared to $42.4 million or $0.30 per ADS in the prior year quarter.
Total net revenue for the first quarter rose 36% to $199.60 million from $146.58 million a year earlier.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.43 per ADS on revenue of $190.64 million for the first quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.
Jason Jiang, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Focus Media said, 'In the first quarter of 2012, our year-on-year revenue growth was mainly driven by the strength of our poster frame and in-store networks due to their exposure to promotion spending budgets which tend to be less affected by macroeconomic uncertainty, mitigating slower growth of our LCD network which was affected by cut back on branding budgets, which tend to be impacted by macroeconomic uncertainties.'
First quarter aggregate net revenue from the LCD display network, in-store network, poster frame network and movie theater network grew 35% year-over-year to $184.3 million. Net revenue from the traditional outdoor billboard network for the first quarter increased 46% to $15.3 million.
Looking forward to the second quarter, the company said it expects net revenues for its core business, inclusive of the LCD display network, the in-store network, the poster frame network and the movie theater network, to be in the range of $211 million to $213 million, the mid-point of which would represent year-on-year growth of 28% and quarter on quarter growth of 15%.
Net revenues for the non-core business, the traditional outdoor billboard network, are expected to be in the range of $13 million to $15 million.
The company also said it expects second quarter adjusted income to be in the range of $78 million to $80 million.
'We have since second quarter of 2012 seen some form of stabilization in the advertising environment including branding spending, despite we have yet to see return to normalization. We remain confident and will continue to strive to achieve our business objectives for the year,' Jiang said.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX