Its Prospects … dated March 2011
MCIL’s profit may overtake Star’s by FY11 ending March 31.
For 9MFY11, MCIL’s net profit rose 48.6% to RM139 million from RM93.5 million a year earlier.
MCIL is the publisher of local Chinese papers such as Sin Chew Daily, Nanyang Siang Pau, China Press and Guang Ming Daily, as well as Ming Pao in Hong Kong .
MCIL’s earnings are expected to soon overtake that of industry leader Star.
The English market is already saturated. At the same time, MCIL is already a market leader of the local Chinese print media with growing and loyal Chinese readership.
The English print media has been challenged by the proliferation of free alternative news providers on the Internet while local Chinese-based alternative news is scarce.
There are very few Chinese blogs or news portals online compared with English sites. As such, MCIL should see its readership grow or maintain. On the other hand, more people are going online to obtain English news, which leads to declining circulation in the English print medium.
For FY10, MCIL recorded a net profit of RM134.2 million or 7.96 sen a share. It also recently distributed 50% of its profits, or 3.98 sen per share, as dividends to its shareholders.
MCIL’s earning also grew 48.7% year-on-year for its 9MFY11 compared with Star’s slower growth of 27.8% for FY10.
MCIL has strong balance sheet with RM272 million cash and no borrowings.
In only two years since MCIL emerged as part of a merger in 2008, its net profit had soared 118% to RM134.2 million in FY2010.
MCIL: 1.35 (MBB), 1.65 (OSK)
