Source:
https://scmp.com/article/995688/ad-slot-sales-push-sinomedia-net-profits-51pc-higher

Ad slot sales push SinoMedia net profits 51pc higher

Shares of SinoMedia rose almost 20 per cent yesterday, after the company reported a 51 per cent increase in net profit last year and proposed a special dividend of 10.6 HK cents.

Beijing-based SinoMedia, the largest privately owned provider of television advertisement time, will also offer a final dividend of 10.6 HK cents for the year to December 31. Its shares climbed 19.94 per cent to HK$3.97 on the news.

Sales of advertising time slots on China Central Television Station contributed the most to the company's revenue, rising 16 per cent to 1.61 billion yuan (HK$1.97 billion) year on year. The firm secured more than 41,000 minutes of screen time on seven CCTV channels last year.

'The co-operation with CCTV is growing [more] stable year by year,' said chairman Chen Xin.

At CCTV's auction of prime-time advertising slots in November, SinoMedia bought more than 1.4 billion yuan of airtime for clients, doubling the contract value for 2010.

The Hong Kong-listed company is also exploring other opportunities in the industry, such as helping advertising clients to position their brand and design media strategy. It also produces ads, with the income from content creation more than doubling last year to 39 million yuan.

Chen said the company would continue to invest in new media including audio-visual content producers and internet portals. He said returns from new media would not emerge immediately.

Net profit was HK$238.9 million, marking a 51 per cent increase from the HK$158.06 million posted in 2010.

Chief financial officer Derek Chan says the company does not have a rigid dividend ratio. 'The issue is decided according to the profit of the last year, as well as demand on capital for the next one to two years,' he said.

Overall revenue rose by 18 per cent to 1.62 billion yuan last year.