> Media Capital announces results for the 1st quarter of 2014

Key highlights:

First quarter EBITDA grew by 69% to € 5.3 million with a margin of 13.2%. This performance resulted not only from the revenue increase (+2%) but also from the reduction registered in opex (-4%).

The Group’s operating performance contributed decisively for a positive net profit in the first quarter (€ 715 thousand). This was the first time since 2011 that Media Capital posted a positive bottom line in the January-March period.

In this period, the advertising market has grown by approximately 2% YoY, thus confirming the recovery signs already seen in the last months of 2013.

TVI kept the leadership in the first three months of the year, with an audience share of 24.4% in all day and 26.9% in prime time. The audience share spread over the second most watched channel was 4.6pp in all day and 2.5pp in prime time. Furthermore, TVI leadership is maintained when considering groups’ channels, with 26.5% in all day and 29.3% in prime time). Also worth highlighting is the performance of TVI24 (news channel), which posted its best quarter ever regarding audience share.

On the financial front, the TV segment had an EBITDA of € 5.0 million and a margin of 15.5%, up 42% vs Q1 2013, with a good mix of higher revenues and lower stable costs.

The Audiovisual Production segment showed an improvement in terms of profitability, with the EBITDA reaching € -0.3 million (vs. € -1.2 million in Q1 2013). The Group continues to bet simultaneously in upgrading its contents as well on operating efficiency, thus expecting an improvement of its results in the course of the year.

The Radio segment registered an EBITDA of € 0.5 million from January to March and a margin of 14.5%, improving 13% vs. Q1 2013. We estimate that MCR continues to improve its market share, as its advertising revenues went up by 5%, whereas the market should have fallen by 2%. In the first data available for 2014, the radio station Rádio Comercial registered its 9^th consecutive reading in the leadership.

In Digital, the network of sites had a50% increase in pageviews. Meanwhile the aggregate of TVI’s brand websites had a 53% share, thus clearly leading its segment. The favourable KPI evolution of this division allowed for a positive EBITDA continuation.