Johannesburg - Kagiso Media's profit attributable to equity shareholders grew by 18 percent to R129.8 million to June, boosted by strong performance from its flagship radio stations Jacaranda FM and East Coast Radio, the media group said yesterday.
The group said that revenue was up 22 percent to R738 million.
Kagiso Media owns 80 percent in Jacaranda, 100 percent of regional radio station East Coast Radio and 24.9 percent of OFM.
The group has 33.3 percent each in Cape Town-based Heart FM and Durban's iGagasi FM and a 25.1 percent stake in Gauteng's Kaya FM.
Kagiso Media's portfolio of radio stations provide advertisers with access to 7.1 million listeners a week across the country.
Kagiso Media chief executive Murphy Morobe said the operating fundamentals of the business continued on their upward trend and the group improved its overall operating profit by 14 percent to R236 million, benefiting from an increase in the margin of the broadcasting division from 49 percent to 51 percent.
Operating profit in the broadcasting division increased by 22 percent to R212 million, while the newly acquired outdoor advertising company Clear Channel Merafe contributed R593 000 to the total revenue.
Media companies such as Naspers, Johnnic Communications (Johncom) and Primedia have generally benefited from the low interest rates, which have fuelled advertising.
However, Naspers and Johncom said recently that they were experiencing a slowdown in advertising.
Morobe said the group had not seen any effect so far, but was expecting changes in the next year or so depending on the economic performance. He said the firm would focus on diversifying its revenue to safeguard against a slow advertising spent.
The SABC said last week that its commercial broadcasting platforms, including SABC 3 and radio stations such as Metro FM, grew revenue by 8 percent to more than R3 billion in the 2007 financial year.
However, the broadcaster said it would introduce new revenue streams to avoid a heavy reliance from the volatile advertising income.
Kagiso Media had a cash balance of R118 million as at June 30. In line with its policy to return all surplus cash to shareholders in the absence of investment opportunities, the company will pay 18c a share in the second half to shareholders.
This will increase its dividend for the year to June to 49c a share. The share price was unchanged at R14.30. The media sector gained 1.17 percent.