National Media Reports Loss for Its Third Fiscal Quarter; Return to Profitability Anticipated in Fourth
Quarter
PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- National Media Corporation (NYSE: NM)
announced today that for its third fiscal quarter ended December 31, 1996, it
had revenues of $70.8 million and a loss of $6.0 million.
For the nine months ended December 31, 1996, the Company had revenues of
$279.8 million. During the nine-month period, earnings before interest,
taxes, depreciation and amortization was approximately $9.8 million, with net
income of $3.6 million, or $.14 per fully diluted share.
Mark P. Hershhorn, President and Chief Executive Officer of National
Media, said, "We expect National Media to return to quarterly profitability in
our fourth fiscal quarter ending March 31, 1997. Our third quarter loss was
principally a result of a temporary downturn in our U.S. business and also
includes $1.1 million in severance costs for restructuring of management."
As the Company said in a press release on December 19, 1996, three
principal factors negatively affected National Media's U.S. business during
the recently completed third quarter.
First, through acquisitions completed earlier in the fiscal year the
Company added significant blocks of infomercial media time that could not be
resold or used profitably during the 1996 pre-holiday period.
Second, new shows were not brought to market quickly enough to fill excess
media time, nor was the Company able to scale up product manufacturing for new
shows quickly enough to ship product against orders generated in the third
quarter. Third, media costs rose considerably in the third fiscal quarter
over the comparable quarter a year ago, a problem seen industry-wide during
the period.
The Company saw improvement in U.S. results in the last several weeks of
the third fiscal quarter and in the first few weeks of the fourth. "We have
begun to market several new shows which are generating profitable advertising
to sales ratios in the United States and we've also had success in
renegotiating broadcast media rates downward," Hershhorn said.
The Company's international business continued to be profitable during the
third fiscal quarter and beginning of the fourth fiscal quarter, with recent
expansion into Romania, Poland, China, Southern Africa and Portugal.
National Media Corporation is the world's fastest growing transactional
television programming company and has become a strong, integrated, global
consumer marketer through its consumer programming expertise and, with its
subsidiary companies, brings transactional television programming to more that
297 million households worldwide.
This press release contains forward-looking statements. The Company
wishes to take advantage of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and is including this statement for
the purpose of availing itself of such provisions. Examples of
forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, (i) projections of
revenues, income or loss, profitability, earnings or loss per share and other
financial indicators, (ii) statements of plans or objectives of the Company's
management or Board of Directors and (iii) other statements about the Company
or the infomercial industry.
The Company's ability to predict projected results or the effect of
certain events on the Company's results of operations is inherently uncertain.
Therefore the Company wishes to caution each reader of this release to
carefully consider certain factors, including competition for customers, media
pricing and access, market conditions regarding buyers and sellers of media,
the potential effect of litigation involving the Company, the risks of doing
business in the U.S. and the international marketplace, issues related to
entering new markets, the inherent difficulty in identifying successful
products, locating efficient suppliers of such products and bringing such
products to market in a timely fashion and other factors, each of which could
affect the ability of the Company to achieve its projected results and may
cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed herein.
NATIONAL MEDIA CORPORATION
THIRD FISCAL QUARTER RESULTS
(In Thousands Except Third Quarter Ended Nine Months Ended
Per Share Amounts) December 31 December 31
1996 1995 1996 1995
Revenues $70,842 $68,353 $279,798 $191,006
Net (Loss) Income ($5,983) $4,932 $3,562 $10,679
Earnings Before Interest,
Taxes, Depreciation
and Amortization ($7,560) $6,678 $9,791 $14,778
(EBITDA)
Net (Loss) Income Per Share:
Primary ($.24) $.21 $.14 $.49
Fully Diluted ($.24) $.20 $.14 $.45
Weighted average number
of common and common
equivalent shares
outstanding:
Primary 24,673 23,781 26,137 22,780
Fully Diluted 24,673 24,414 26,137 23,759
To request previous press releases on National Media Corporation, please
contact PR Newswire at 800-758-5804, ext. 604644.
SOURCE National Media Corporation
CONTACT: Bruce Boyle, Director of Corporate Communications of National Media,
800-311-3561 |
