MONTREAL – Selling its majority stake in Sun News Network helped boost Quebecor-owned TVA Group’s net profits for the second quarter to $7 million or $0.29 per share, the company announced Friday.
In comparison, TVA Group’s net profit for the same quarter in 2012 was $10.2 million or $0.43 per share.
On June 30, TVA Group sold a 2% interest in Sun News Network News to Sun Media Corp. (which is also a Quebecor subsidiary) for $765,000, leaving it with a 49% interest in the company.
Revenues from TVA Group’s television and publishing and other businesses were $111.5 million, a decline of $2 million from the same period in 2012.
“Results for the latest quarter, combined with those for the first quarter of 2013, point towards long-term trends in the global television market,” president and CEO Pierre Dion said in a company release. “This reality has prompted us to introduce a cost-reduction plan to enable us to achieve our financial targets for fiscal 2013 while continuing to invest in growth projects.”
Quebecor also cited the need to reduce operating costs to compete in a challenging market when it cut 90 jobs, representing 4.5% of its total staff, in June.
