Beasley's Net Revenue Up 13.2% in Q1

RADIO ONLINE | Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Beasley Broadcast Group, Inc. has announced operating results for the three month period ended March 31, 2016 showing $3.2 million, or a 13.2%, year-over-year increase in net revenue. The positive report primarily reflects higher revenue at the Company's Tampa-St. Petersburg and Charlotte market clusters.

"Our strong first quarter operating results highlight the solid revenue growth at the Company's Tampa-St. Petersburg and Charlotte market clusters which combined with the success of our integration and profitability initiatives generated double digit growth in key financial metrics," said Caroline Beasley, Interim CEO and EVP/CFO. "While 2016 first quarter revenue included the cyclical return of political advertising, we generated organic revenue growth even without the political spending. In addition, we achieved our goal of our clusters, on a combined basis, outperforming the markets that report to Miller Kaplan for the full quarter and expect this trend to continue in 2016."

"At the time we announced the station exchange with CBS in 2014, we indicated that we expected the transaction to be accretive to the Company's station operating income in the first eighteen months of ownership. As reflected by the first quarter results, we exceeded our goal as the transaction is accretive after approximately sixteen months of ownership."

Station Operating Income (SOI, a non-GAAP financial measure), rose 16% in the first quarter of 2016, compared to the first quarter of 2015, to $7.5 million. The increase was driven by higher net revenue in the first quarter of 2016, partially offset by a $2.2 million, or 12.2%, increase in station operating expenses related to higher bonuses earned, partially as a result of higher revenue, promotions and event/concert expenses.

The year-over-year decrease in other income (expense), net is primarily due to a $0.4 million benefit from insurance proceeds related to a damaged radio tower in Augusta, Georgia in 2015, while the $0.5 million, or 59.8%, increase in income tax expense primarily reflects a rise in the effective tax rate compared to the first quarter of 2015 as well as the higher level of pre-tax income. As a result, net income and net income per diluted share for the 2016 first quarter was $1.8 million and $0.08, respectively, compared with $1.3 million, and $0.06, respectively, in the comparable year ago period.

Beasley added, "During the first quarter, we continued to allocate operating cash flow to debt reduction and made credit facility repayments totaling $3.0 million, reducing borrowings to $86.0 million at March 31. We intend to continue our use of cash from operations to further reduce debt, pay quarterly cash dividends and to pursue other opportunities to enhance shareholder value and during the first quarter declared our tenth consecutive quarterly cash dividend."

"Our strategic priorities remain focused on leveraging our local content and the strong ratings in all of our clusters through the further development of our digital and event marketing/NTR activities. We've worked hard to maintain strong community involvement and an intimate connection with our listeners and advertisers in all of our markets. We also remain focused on our station clusters matching or exceeding their market's revenue performance and further strengthening our balance sheet as means of enhancing shareholder value. In 2016, we expect to benefit from the changes."