GMA NETWORK, INC.’S attributable net income plunged 87% to P102.47 million in the primary quarter from a 12 months earlier, as lower promoting revenue weighed on earnings.
In a disclosure on Thursday, the broadcaster said gross revenue declined 30% to P3.26 billion.
Promoting revenue dropped 31% to P2.98 billion, mainly because of the absence of political ads that boosted earnings during last 12 months’s election-related spending cycle. Consumer sales, nonetheless, rose 14% to P381.08 million.
Gross expenses fell 9% to P3.32 billion. Production and direct costs declined 6% to P1.88 billion, while general and administrative expenses dropped 13% to P1.45 billion.
Individually, GMA said the Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 138 denied its petition looking for to nullify a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rule imposing a nine-year term limit on independent directors of listed corporations.
The court said the corporate failed to point out sufficient evidence of actual or impending injury from the rule.
GMA said the court noted that the corporate may keep its independent directors until its annual stockholders’ meeting without penalty and wouldn’t suffer irreparable harm from the SEC order.
“The foregoing incident has no impact on the corporate’s financial condition or business operations,” it said.
The broadcaster earlier sought to postpone its annual stockholders’ meeting to December to handle the implications of the SEC rule, however the regulator denied the request last week.
SEC Memorandum Circular No. 7, signed by SEC Chairman Francisco Ed. Lim in January, limits independent directors of listed corporations to a cumulative term of nine years, including service rendered since 2012.
GMA shares rose 1.18% or 6 centavos to shut at P5.14 each. — Ashley Erika O. Jose