With the gradual reopening of the economy and the easing of restrictions, GMA Network Inc. hopes to grow its earnings by as much as 15 percent by the end of 2021.
Felipe L. Gozon, the company’s chairman, told stockholders on Wednesday that his group continues to grow its top line while minimizing costs, as the economy continues to reopen with the inoculation programs being rolled out.
“Based on the past months, where I said that we have increased our gross revenues by 55 percent and have caused our costs to be kept at bay at 5 percent, we feel confident that we might still increase our total gross revenues and net income for 2021,” he said.
Gozon added that his group is seeing “indications that the effects of the pandemic are easing up and as a consequence, the government is also easing up on the restrictions.”
“With the reduction in the rate of infections and with the increase in vaccination towards herd immunity, and if we are optimistic on the optimistic side, I think we can project, hopefully, a 15-percent increase in 2021 over 2020,” he noted.
In the first quarter, the listed broadcaster recorded profits reaching P2 billion, a three-fold increase from the P583.41 million the year prior, as revenues rose to P5.46 billion, while total operating expenses settled at P2.84 billion.
Gozon added that his group plans to spend P20 billion in capital expenditures (capex) and production costs over the next 3 years—similar to what he announced for the outlays and content costs in 2020.
“We will continue to invest in long term sustainable value creation and proof of this is our capital allocation for the next three years. We earmarked more than P20 billion for our capex and content cost for 2021 to 2023. This includes cost for construction of a new building and state of the art studios inside of our complex,” Gozon said.
For 2021, he said GMA will be launching 100 programs, including network-produced and acquired foreign shows.
Gozon also seemed unfazed by the fact that its original competitor, ABS-CBN Corp., has been buying block time from TV5 and A2Z Channel 11.
“Without sounding immodest, it has not really adversely affected our ratings and revenues,” he said.
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