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Article Excerpt
OPERATOR: (Spoken in French) . Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Astral Media fiscal 2009 second quarter financial results conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. I would like to remind you that after the presentation, the analysts will be invited to ask questions first, followed by members of the media. Instructions will be provided at that time for you to queue up for questions. I would like to remind everyone that this conference call is being recorded on Thursday, April 9, 2009, at 10:30 AM Eastern time. (Operator Instructions). (Spoken in French). It is now my pleasure to introduce Mr. Andre Bureau, Chairman of the Board of Astral Media. Please go ahead, sir.
ANDRE BUREAU, CHAIRMAN, ASTRAL MEDIA INC: Good morning, everyone, I am Andre Bureau, Chairman of the Board of Astral Media and I'm joined this morning by Ian Greenberg, President and Chief Executive Officer, Robert Fortier, Vice President Finance and by Alain Bergeron, Vice President of Brand Management and Corporate Communications. We also have a special participant this morning that Ian will introduce in a moment. On behalf of all of us here in Montreal I would like to welcome you to this fiscal 2009 second quarter conference call. In a few moments, Ian and Robert will comment on the overall results. We will then proceed to the question-and-answer period, and as usual we will take questions first from analysts and then from the media. (Spoken in French).
IAN GREENBERG, PRESIDENT, CEO, ASTRAL MEDIA INC: Good morning, everyone and thank you for joining us. Before we get started I would like to welcome back our dear friend, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Claude Gagnon. Claude, welcome back.
CLAUDE GAGNON, SVP, CFO, ASTRAL MEDIA INC: Thank you very much, Ian and I'd like to thank everybody out there for their kind words of support during my I guess what I found to be a brief hiatus and I'd like to thank Robert Fortier and my colleagues for all of their support and for pinch-hitting in my absence. I can't tell you how happy I'm back here working for a bunch of very special people that make up Astral, which is a very special Company, and I have all the time in the world if I have to convince anybody out there that it is a special Company. Ian?
IAN GREENBERG: Thank you, Claude. This morning I'm really very proud of the achievements during the second quarter, which reflect continued growth of Astral's revenues, EBITDA and earnings per share despite the very challenging environment affecting all of us. This performance was achieved in spite of a CAD2.7 million restructuring charge within our radio group, due to a recent reorganization. Excluding the impact of the special charge, our net earnings from continuing operations of CAD30.8 million, for the second quarter, grew 6% over the same quarter last year, while basic earnings per share of CAD0.55 showed an 8% growth over the corresponding period last year on an apples to apples basis.
For comparative purposes, we have excluded from last year's results the favorable impact of the non-cash CAD28.3 million future income tax recovery recorded in the second quarter of fiscal 2008. As a result of an active income tax change, income tax rate changes. This performance I think clearly demonstrates that our unique revenue mix enables us to continue delivering solid results, while weathering the storm in tough economic times. Today, we are happy to be reporting a 50th consecutive quarter of profitable growth for Astral. This is truly a remarkable achievement in the current context, and I want to acknowledge the contribution of all of our employees across Canada in reaching this impressive milestone.
Turning to the results of our television group, for the second quarter revenues grew by 3% and EBITDA grew by 4% over the corresponding period last year. This performance was fuelled by a 4% increase in the number of our pay TV subscribers year-over-year. In the first six months of this year, we added 72,000 new subscribers to our pay TV subbase, which stood at 1,776,000 subscribers at the end of the second quarter. I'm also delighted by the continuing contribution of our radio access, which reported a strong performance once again in this tough environment. Despite challenges in the ad market nationwide, our radio stations grew their revenues by 2% while the overall corresponding markets were down 4% in the second quarter. Looking at the results of our outdoor advertising division, we are particularly pleased with our Toronto Street Furniture program, which partly compensated for the overall softness of the outdoor in Q2.
Finally early indications following the launch of our new digital network in Montreal are also very encouraging for this truly innovative platform which is a first in Canada. Brief word on our operational margins. I'm very pleased that we were able to maintain our consolidated EBITDA margins for both the three and six-month periods of fiscal 2009 in the current operating conditions. It is an achievement that we are very proud of. Let me conclude by highlighting the fact that through a combination of our diversified revenue mix, cost reduction measures, aggressive branding strategies, and ongoing investments in our products, we have been able to continue to grow in this period of high volatility. We move forward with the confidence that our strong management team and our ability to execute our strategy will enable us to continue to perform well in the future.
I'll call upon Robert.
ROBERT FORTIER, VP - FINANCE, ASTRAL MEDIA INC: Thank you, Ian. I'd like to bring a few key financial elements to your attention. As Ian...
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