MANILA: Driven by strong advertising revenues, ABS-CBN Corporation is optimistic in reaching its earnings guidance of about P3.5 billion in 2016, after it saw its net income surge by 50% during the first 9 months of the year.
“We are confident that we will meet our earnings guidance of between P3.2 billion and P3.5 billion for 2016,” ABS-CBN chief financial officer (CFO) Aldrin Cerrado announced on Friday, October 28.
Boosted by “election spending and continued leadership in ratings of our primetime shows,” Cerrado said ABS-CBN’s net income for the January-September 2016 period went up to P2.85 billion, from P1.89 billion in the same period a year ago.
Its consolidated revenue, meanwhile, increased by 12% to P31.1 billion for the first 9 months of 2016, from P27.76 billion in 2015. Its costs and expenses also went up by 8% to P26.97 billion in the January-September period this year, from 2015’s P24.98 billion.
Cerrado said ABS-CBN has an ongoing program to manage costs more efficiently. (READ: More political ads in 3rd presidential debate of ABS-CBN) “We have been successful in controlling production costs and have been able to reduce expenses on a per program basis compared to last year,” the ABS-CBN official said.
The Lopez-led firm sold 1.6 million ABS-CBN TVplus boxes as of the end of September. Cerrado said ABS-CBN’s total assets also rose to P74.7 billion as of the end September 2016, from P70.4 billion as of end last year.
