MultiChoice, Africa’s largest pay TV group, expects to report a narrowing in its full-year headline loss per share, it said.
The group expected its headline loss per share for the year to end-March to improve by 62%-66% from the loss of 715c reported a year ago, it said in a statement late on Thursday.
The group said the trading period had been characterised by several macroeconomic factors, including weaker average exchange rates, elevated inflation and interest rates, and power supply challenges.
“Combined with the impact of structural industry changes in video entertainment, such as the rise of piracy, streaming services and social media, as well as the cost of investing in Showmax, this has materially affected the performance of the MultiChoice Group,” it said.
The group has acted to counter these headwinds by focusing on areas within its control such as maintaining inflationary pricing discipline, growing new revenue streams and driving further efficiencies to manage costs and cash flows.
MultiChoice expects to report positive earnings per share, mainly driven by management’s actions, the recognition of a profit on the sale of a 60% shareholding in NMS Insurance Services to Sanlam Life Insurance in November 2024, and a downward adjustment to the Showmax put option liability.
“The ongoing investment in the Showmax streaming business, which remains at an early stage of development and has yet to scale into its cost base, is expected to result in the group reporting a lower trading profit,” it said.
On an organic basis — excluding the effects of foreign currency and group composition changes — the decline in trading profit is expected to be much smaller.
MultiChoice will release results on June 11.
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