Astro’s Q3 profit tumbles 6.4% YoY to MYR106m

Blame it on unrealized forex losses.

Astro Malaysia Holdings Berhad (Astro)’s 3QFY15 net profit tumbled 6.4% YoY to MYR106m on back of unrealized forex losses, according to a report by OCBC. Finance expenses also skyrocketed 130.3% YoY and 30.8% QoQ.

Nevertheless, profit for 9MFY16 still climbed 8.5% to MYR411.6m.

Meanwhile, Astro management is bracing for the operating environment to remain challenging since the consumer sentiment environment is still soft.

It believes, though, that it can still generate strong cashflow and maintain dividend policy by focusing on delivering value-added products and services. It’s also banking on investing in technology and high-quality original programming in anticipation of dynamic consumption needs.

Astro appears to be confident that its strong content offering means that OTT players such as Netflix are more “complementary” to Astro services, and not direct competitors.