Beasley Q3 Revenues Fall On Pro Forma Basis, Net Income Down

Reports Results

BEASLEY MEDIA GROUP, INC. third-quarter net revenue rose 7% to $26.3 million, but fell 4.5% on a pro forma basis based on weakness in the CHARLOTTE, LAS VEGAS, FAYETTEVILLE, NC and WILMINGTON, NC markets. Net income fell from $2.5 million to a loss of $700,000 (gain of 11 cents/diluted share attributable to shareholders to a loss of 3 cents/share).

Chairman/CEO GEORGE G. BEASLEY said, “On a combined basis, third quarter top line revenue growth of 7% reflects the ongoing leadership of our FT. MYERS cluster as well as growth in TAMPA-ST. PETERSBURG, one of the two markets we entered as a result of last year’s asset exchange (with CBS RADIO). The station exchange diversified our local radio and marketing solutions platform and, since closing the transaction, we have been executing plans to extract operating and financial synergies from the transaction.

“However, on a pro forma basis, third quarter net revenue decreased 4.5% while SOI declined 12.2%.  The decline in pro forma revenue largely reflects weakness in CHARLOTTE, LAS VEGAS, FAYETTEVILLE and WILMINGTON, which reduced operating leverage and impacted SOI. However, we continue to make progress with the TAMPA-ST. PETERSBURG and CHARLOTTE integration initiatives and reduced combined station operating expenses in these markets by approximately $700,000, while company-wide cost reductions led to a 1.5% reduction in third quarter station operating expenses.

“We are now approximately eleven months into our integration and transition plan related to the asset exchange and despite it being more difficult and time consuming than expected, we believe our success in expense management combined with our ratings strength should lead to financial benefits from the swap in late 2016.  In the meantime, we continue to make progress in reducing debt, while returning capital to shareholders. During the third quarter we made credit facility repayments totaling $3.0 million, reduced borrowings to $90.2 million at SEPTEMBER 30th, 2015 and declared our eighth consecutive quarterly cash dividend.

“Looking forward, we remain focused on operating our station clusters to match or exceed their market’s revenue performance while further strengthening our balance sheet. We believe our ratings and programming are in great shape and look forward to benefiting from the integration, programming, personnel, cost-efficiency and operating changes put in place over the last year.”

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