MONTREAL – Acquisitions continue to pay off for Stingray Digital Group which saw its fourth quarter profits jump by over 41%, the company said Thursday.
For the fourth quarter ended March 31, Stingray posted a net income of $4.6 million, up from $3.2 million for the same period last year, mainly attributable to higher income taxes recovery related to the recognition of prior unrecognized tax losses, lower loss on fair value of investments, partially offset by higher legal fees and amortization of intangibles.
Adjusted net income increased 47.6% to $10.5 million from $7.1 million year-over-year, primarily due to higher income tax recovery and higher adjusted EBITDA, which increased 10.1% to $9.0 million, related to acquisitions combined with organic growth in commercial music.
Revenues of $26.5 million grew 3.3% compared with revenues of $25.7 million in the same period last year, which the company credited to its acquisitions of Classica and Bell’s Music Video Channels (Much Channels) combined with international growth related to new products and organic growth for digital signage in Canada.
Recurring revenues were up 3.8% to $22.7 million and increased at 85.6% of total revenues for the quarter, compared to 85.0% last year.
Music broadcasting revenues increased 1.5% to $19.7 million, mainly due to the acquisitions of Classica and Much Channels, and organic growth from online and downloaded music products. Commercial music revenues rose 9.0% to $6.8 million, mainly as a result of organic growth from digital signage activities in Canada.
For Fiscal 2017, revenues increased 12.8% to $101.5 million compared to $89.9 million a year ago, which the company credited to its acquisitions combined with growth in international markets and commercial music in Canada. Net income fell 22.8% to $10.7 million from $13.9 million, though adjusted net income increased 12.3% to $27.3 million from $24.3 million in Fiscal 2016.
“During Fiscal 2017, we continued to significantly strengthen our multi-channel music platform on a global scale, underlined by the fact that international revenue is rapidly approaching the 50% level”, said Stingray president, CEO and co-founder Eric Boyko, in a statement. “We are very pleased to have surpassed the symbolic mark of $100 million in revenues this year, which, more importantly, provides critical scale to our business model, and enhances our capacity to compete and consolidate our industry.”
Stingray’s Q4 and F2017 financial report is available here.
In other company news, Stingray said Thursday that its Stingray Classica, Stingray DJAZZ, and Stingray Karaoke are now available on Amazon Channels in the U.S. Amazon Prime members may enjoy unlimited channel streaming after subscribing to each channel for $6.99 per month after the 7-day free trial.
