GTN Limited (GTN) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good day, and welcome to the GTN Limited Fiscal Year 2021 Year-End Earnings Conference Call. Today's conference is being recorded. Representing the company today are Bill Yde, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer; and Scott Cody, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer. Before I turn the conference over to Bill, I would like to remind the listeners that this call is subject to the disclaimer and important information included in the company's year-end earnings presentation. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Bill Yde, Managing Director and CEO. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you. The COVID pandemic [indiscernible] ongoing challenges also for our market this past full year as revenue dropped 11%, however, a significant progress throughout the year, culminating with an 85% increase in revenue in the fourth quarter fiscal 2021 when compared to the same period of the prior fiscal year. Despite the revenue decrease, adjusted EBITDA decreased only 2% compared to fiscal 2020 due to an 11% reduction in operating expenses. Given the ongoing nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, we felt this was a good outcome since last year's results included 9 pre-pandemic months. In order to control expenses, we've had to make some difficult decisions such as electing not to renew the Nine Radio stations contract as part of our radio network. Australia revenue decreased 13% compared to fiscal year 2020 as the lockdown of the Melbourne market through the end of October 2020 had a negative impact on our revenue. After the lifting of the lockdown, second half fiscal year 2021 grew 18% when compared to the same period in the previous year, including a 75% increase in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021. Further evidence of the improvement in our capability were not hampered by COVID issues, Australia was able to achieve a 42% adjusted EBITDA margin in June of 2021. Canada revenue decreased 10% compared to fiscal year 2020, 4% in local currency. Canada was one of our better-performing markets in first half fiscal year 2021. Toronto, the largest and most important market in Canada, entered lockdown at the end of December 2020 and that lockdown remained in place until July 2021 with some restrictions continuing to date. While this lockdown had a negative impact on revenue, Canada revenues for fourth quarter fiscal year 2021 increased by 175% in local currency when compared to fourth quarter fiscal year 2020. Brazil revenue decreased 50% compared to fiscal year 2020, 32% in local currency. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on this market. However, despite the challenging conditions throughout much of the year, we achieved significantly higher revenue in fourth quarter fiscal year 2021 compared to fourth quarter fiscal year 2020 as revenue increased 141% in local currency. United Kingdom revenue increased 4% compared to fiscal year 2020, 9% in local currency. U.K. was our strongest performing market in first half fiscal year 2021 and had a strong fourth quarter fiscal year 2021, increasing 65% in local currency compared to the previous year, which led to the revenue increase for the fiscal year. This was despite significant lockdowns, which have just recently been lifted. Our strategy to deal with the current difficult environment and put our -- put the company in a position to take advantage of stronger markets in the future is to protect and maintain our 2 most valuable assets, our unparalleled affiliate networks and talented sales and management teams. We have also put in place measures to conserve cash and reduce expenses where possible. These strategic cost reductions, combined with our strong balance sheet, should enable our business to continue to be resilient during this pandemic. Our operating decisions have allowed us to repay $10 million of our outstanding bank debt during fiscal year 2021 while still maintaining a strong balance sheet and most importantly, without needing to raise additional capital. At 30th of June 2021, our cash balance was $49.4 million, and our net debt was only $3.8 million. Our total gearing ratio of net debt-to-adjusted EBITDA was 0.27x as of 30th of June 2021. I'll now turn the call over to Scott for a complete review of the financials.

Thanks, Bill, and good morning, everyone. Revenue for fiscal 2021 decreased 11% to $143.3 million. Revenue increased in the U.K. while decreasing in our other operating geographies compared to the previous fiscal year. When compared to fiscal 2020, Australia revenue decreased 13%, Canada revenue decreased 10%, Brazil revenue decreased 50%, while U.K. revenue increased 4%. Revenue increased strongly in all of our operating regions in fourth quarter fiscal 2021 as group revenue increased 85% compared to fourth fiscal quarter 2020. Revenue from our non-Australian operations was negatively impacted by unfavorable foreign currency movements. When measured in local currencies, United Kingdom revenue increased 9%, Canada revenue decreased 4%, and Brazil revenue decreased 32% compared to last fiscal year. Adjusted EBITDA, which we define as earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization adjusted to include the noncash interest income generated by the financing component of our long-term station affiliation agreement with Southern Cross Austereo and excluding transaction costs, foreign exchange gains and losses, refinancing losses and gains on lease forgiveness, was $14.0 million compared to $14.2 million in fiscal 2020, a decrease of 2%. We consider it appropriate to add the financing component of our long-term station affiliation agreement with Southern Cross Austereo to EBITDA because EBITDA includes a large amount of noncash station compensation expense related to the agreement. And by including both amounts in adjusted EBITDA, we believe it provides a clearer view of the financial impact of the agreement. Adjusted EBITDA was positively impacted by an 11% decrease in operating expenses, which offset almost all the revenue decrease in the period. The largest portion of the decrease was a $9.7 million decrease in network operations and station compensation expenses. The largest portion of this decrease, $6.4 million, was due to a decrease in station compensation, primarily related to the termination of Nine Radio affiliation agreements in July 2020. Selling, general and administrative expenses decreased $7.9 million with the largest portion of the decrease related to lower sales employee compensation due to the lower revenue for the fiscal year. JobKeeper and the Canadian Emergency Wage Subsidy are treated as a reduction in general and administrative expenses. The group recorded $2.5 million of benefit from these programs in fiscal year 2021, an increase of $1.1 million compared to fiscal year 2020. Adjusted NPAT, which is defined as net profit after tax adjusted to add back the tax-affected noncash amortization expense related to acquired intangible assets, decreased 6% to $4.6 million. The decrease is primarily related to the lower NPAT for the period despite a $2.1 million increase in net profit before tax. The main driver of this difference is the $1.6 million United States tax benefit in FY 2020 due to the carryback provisions of the CARES Act. Income taxes expense/benefit increased $2.5 million from $1 million of tax benefit in FY 2020 to $1.5 million tax expense in FY 2021. Finance costs decreased $0.9 million from FY 2020, primarily due to lower interest rates on the bank loan. In December 2020, the group and its lender agreed to modify certain covenants and other terms of its debt facility. The purpose of these modifications was to allow the group to remain in compliance with the terms of the debt facility given the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on its trailing 12-month financial results. The group was in compliance with all its financial covenants for fiscal 2021 and continues to be so. As a condition of this release, the company agreed to restrict distributions, including the elimination of dividends and share buybacks and other tightening of the terms of the debt facility agreement for the period of the modification. These modifications remain in place until 31st December 2021. Consistent with our desire to conserve cash and the distribution limitations of the bank facility, the Board has decided not to declare a final dividend in FY 2021. I will now the call back to Bill for an update on fiscal 2022.

Thanks, Scott. July and August revenues for the current fiscal year are up sharply compared to last year, with July revenues increasing 26% compared to July 2020 and August revenues forecast to increase 24% compared to last year. This is despite the recent increase in COVID cases in Australia and the reinstitution of lockdowns, which are having a negative impact on revenue and are expected to continue to do so while these restrictions are in place. When measured in local currencies, July 2021, revenue increased 31% in Australia, 23% in Canada, 12% in the U.K., and 79% in Brazil. Future results are likely to be highly dependent on the COVID-19 impact on the markets in which we operate. However, when compared to first quarter fiscal year 2021 performance, the initial trends for fiscal year 2022 are positive. All 4 of our markets continue to be positioned to perform well with solid affiliate lineups, strong sales staffs, and virtually no direct competitors. We have a strong balance sheet with ample liquidity, and we believe that we will perform well when the markets improve. This ends our prepared remarks. We will now open the lines to questions. Scott, if we've got no questions coming in, I'll just end with the closing comments.

Sure.

Anybody have any questions? All right. We'll be happy to talk to you guys after the reports are all done, and on one-on-one, if you like. But despite the ongoing impact of COVID-19, we are confident about the future, we have retained an excellent management team, maintained and improved upon a strong balance sheet, and implemented strategic cost reductions. These factors have put us in a position to favorably capitalize on the expanded -- expected advertising recovery, and we are confident that we have ample liquidity, even if the recovery is slow to arrive. We look forward to speaking to you again after half year fiscal '22 results. Thank you all for attending, and we look forward to speaking to you soon. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, we do humbly apologize for the technical difficulty there. [Operator Instructions] Ladies and gentlemen, we do apologize for the technical difficulty that was experienced in this call. Unfortunately, we will have to conclude this call. Thank you very much.