PETALING JAYA: Media Prima Bhd has made a commitment to take the necessary steps to meet current challenges head on in light of its poorer financial performance.
It said it would meet those challenges by creating engaging content for its audiences through an extensive range of media platforms.
The media group said going forward, it would also offer top-quality advertising opportunities for advertisers.
Media Prima posted a net profit of RM3.9 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2023, an 80% drop from the preceding quarter, on the back of a RM210.8 million revenue.
This is the fifth quarter of its current financial period after the group revised its financial year to end on June 30, 2023 from Dec 31, 2022.
In a filing with Bursa Malaysia today, the company attributed the 17% drop in revenue to soft advertising market conditions as well as intense competition in the e-commerce segment.
This has had a negative impact on all business segments, with significant quarterly revenue decreases observed particularly in its digital media arm (28%), marketing solutions arm Omnia (20%) and publishing (18%).
The poorer financial performance has eroded analysts’ confidence in its future.
Kenanga Research analyst Jack Lai has downgraded his call on the media group from “outperform” to “market perform” and lowered his target price from 57 sen to 42 sen for a 26% drop.
While his counterparts at RHB Investment Bank, Jeffrey Tan and Wan Ammar Affan, revised their target price of its shares downwards to 45 sen from 49 sen for an 8% drop, they maintained their “neutral” call on the counter.
They said the group’s plan to turn the business around from a pure marketplace to one that leveraged the rest of its media platforms would take time to bear fruit.
At press time, Media Prima’s share price stood at 42 sen, unchanged for the day, giving the group a market capitalisation of RM460.57 million.