“We have made significant progress on our plan to create a more sustainable future following challenging industry wide conditions and increased competitive intensity this past year.”
That’s what Corus Entertainment co-Chief Executive Officer Troy Reeb said as the Toronto-headquartered multimedia company completed its fiscal year on August 31. Total revenue was off 21% year-over-year while profits dipped by 9%.
That said, the Radio segment had a particularly difficult fiscal Q4.
Reeb leads Corus alongside co-CEO and Chief Financial Officer John Gossling. He said Corus’ commitment to “right-sizing” its business is evident in the company’s fourth quarter and year-end results. “We delivered increased free cash flow for the year, benefitting from our meaningful cost reduction efforts and deliberate focus on assets with the highest potential to generate returns,” Gossling said.
He also pointed to Corus’ sign-off on an amended and restated credit facility agreement that cuts the total limit on its Revolving Facility to $150 million from $300 million, with ability for Corus to request advances up to $65 million, and the right increase the maximum total debt-to-cash flow ratio required under the financial covenants to 5.75x through the end of 2024 — and 7.25x from January 1 through March 31, 2025.
With the maturity date for Corus’ restated Credit Facility now March 18, 2026, Gossling called this “an important step in our more comprehensive plan to address our balance sheet and facilitates the execution of our business strategy.”
Indeed, addressing Corus’ balance sheet is an important, and challenging, task. Total revenue for fiscal 2024 fell by 16%, to $1.27 billion CDN. Profit (or Net Income) declined by 15% to $283.43 million CDN.
In fiscal Q4, overall revenue dipped by 21%, with Television dollars declining to $248.05 million CDN from $314.23 million CDN and Radio dollars dipping by 13% to $21.31 million CDN from $24.61 million.
While TV revenue was down by a higher percentage than that of Radio, profit for Corus’ TV stations (which include the CTV network) slipped by just 8%, to $45.71 million CDN from $49.78 million CDN.
Corus’ Radio income careened by 53%, moving to $1.41 million CDN from $2.98 million CDN.
Put it all together, and Corus’ fiscal Q4 adjusted net loss attributable to shareholders was lower by 56%. Still, it totaled $4 million CDN (-$0.02 per share).
On a positive note, Free Cash Flow rose to $39.14 million from $31.65 million.
With little in the way of commentary regarding the company’s 37 radio stations and overall industry performance challenges, Corus says it continues to expect “over-supply” of premium digital video inventory from foreign competitors, and generally lower demand for linear advertising in the quarters ahead. As such, Corus expects year-over-year declines in Television advertising revenue in the first quarter of fiscal 2025 to be similar to the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024.
Thus, Corus said, “The company will continue with its implementation of additional cost reduction initiatives and expects general and administrative expenses to decline in the range of 5% to 10% for the first quarter compared to the prior year. While the company continues to expect improvement in the macroeconomic environment in the medium term, visibility remains limited at this time.”
As of 2:25pm Eastern, Corus shares, which trade as “CJREF” on the OTC Pink Sheet, were priced at $0.10 USD. Its “CJR-B” shares on the TSX were trading at $0.1450 CDN, down 9.4% from Thursday.
