With no quarterly earnings call as the publicly traded company seeks to soon exit from voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and end its “debtor-in-possession” status with the FCC, Audacy Corp. joined the many broadcast media companies that decided to release its financial results for the first three months on Thursday.
How did the company founded by CEO David Field‘s father, Joseph, fare?
Net revenue climbed to $261.81 million from $259.64 million, while total operating expenses declined to $262.23 million from $271.84 million — validating industry chatter seen across the recent 2024 NAB Show that Audacy is rapidly positioning itself to emerge from bankruptcy as a strong restructured company with 80% of its debt erased.
With a fund led by George Soros, the Democrat who has also placed a significant investment in Latino Media Network, Audacy appears on track to see net income soon. In Q1 2024, its net loss shrank to $1.85 million (-$0.39 per share), from $35.9 million (-$7.63) in the same period of 2023.
The results surpassed the $258 million revenue estimate offered by one analyst polled by Yahoo! Finance, while the EPS significantly exceed that analysts prediction of EPS coming in at -$6.24.
Adjusted EBITDA came in at $9.6 million, soaring from $3.5 million. Adjusted Free Cash Flow improved to -$2.66 million from -$41.72 million.
The financial report couldn’t spark Audacy’s beleaguered share price, with “AUDAQ” trading on an Over-the-Counter market with a Thursday closing price of $0.1641.
“Audacy delivered a solid start to 2024 with Q1 EBITDA increasing 173% vs the prior year,” Field noted in prepared comments. He added that Q2 revenue is currently pacing up low-single digits. “We expect another quarter of substantial EBITDA growth, enhanced by our continuing work on expense reductions,” he added.
Specifically, April was particularly strong for Audacy, up high single digits. While May is flat, June is up mid-single digits.
Thank the digital prowess being executed by Audacy for that performance, as its Radio arm is currently pacing down low single digits for the quarter. In contrast, Digital revenue is pacing up in the high teens.
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Field noted in his comments distributed with Audacy’s Q1 results late Thursday that the company formerly known as Entercom’s improving results “are predominantly attributable to a significant acceleration in digital revenue growth, continuing meaningful revenue share gains, and declining expenses as our transformational investments bear fruit.”
Saluting the Audacy team, Field lauded the company’s staff “for their excellent work in driving financial and operating progress while simultaneously executing our reorganization plan, all without disruption to customers, listeners, partners, vendors or our staff.”
With Chief Technology Officer Sarah Foss and Chief Operating Officer Susan Larkin in chief leadership positions, Field said the Audacy team “is very much looking forward to a bright future, emerging as a scaled leader in the dynamic audio market, distinguished by our best-in-class balance sheet, our top positions across the country’s largest markets, and our exclusive premium content highlighted by our unrivaled leadership in sports audio.”
