Thursday, August 21, 2008 ABS-CBN enters into P1B credit facility deal
NETWORK giant ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. announced that it recently signed a P1 billion credit facility agreement with two of the country’s known banks.
Charles Gamo, ABS-CBN head of the corporate planning and investor relations, said the loan agreement was signed between them and Security Bank and Ayala-owned Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI).
He said part of the borrowings will be used to fund their capital expenditures and expansion projects.
“The additional borrowing capacity will be used for working capital and capital expenditures,” he said in a statement to the Philippine Stock Exchange.
Gamo said the credit facility will be paid in seven years.
ABS-CBN, owned by the Lopez group, reported early this month that it posted a 33 percent increase in recurring net income or P754 million for the first six months of the year, compared to the P567 million in the same period last year driven by strong sales.
The broadcasting firm said its consolidated revenues for the first semester reached P10.2 billion.
Consolidated net income for the first semester was at P754 million, or two percent higher than its year ago figure of P739 million.
“Last year’s net income included P172 million of non-recurring profits from DirecTV license fees. This year’s first semester earnings was boosted by the P514-million income registered in the second quarter,” Gamo earlier said.
Aside from gains in sales, the company said it also posted growth in minutes and increase in rates of advertisements.
It also said airtime revenues for the second quarter of 2008 rose to P3.5 billion, a 25-percent improvement from the first quarter of the year. This resulted in airtime revenues for the first semester to grow to P6.36 billion which is a three percent growth year-on-year on total airtime revenues and nine percent growth on recurring airtime revenues, net of P298 million non-recurring political ad revenues, on the first half of 2007. (MSN/Sunnex)
