Entertainment One profit dented by one-off charge
By Duncan Ferris
Date: Tuesday 21 May 2019
(Sharecast News) - Entertainment One reported a drop in full-year profit on Tuesday as it took a hit from a one-off charge.
Pre-tax profit at the Peppa Pig owner slumped 43% to £36.8m as it was hit by a £61m charge related to its home entertainment business. Excluding that and other charges, underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisaton rose 21% to £198m, while underlying pre-tax profit was up 20% to £156m.
Meanwhile, reported revenue slipped to £941m from £1bn as lower film, television & music income more than offset a 28% increase in family & brands revenue to £158.5m. This was driven by the continued strong performance of Peppa Pig, PJ Masks and a new show, Cupcake & Dino: General Services.
The full-year dividend was lifted to 1.5p per share from 1.4p per share.
Despite the transition in film, the company tasted critical success with projects such as the Oscar-winning Green Book, as well as Vice and Stan & Ollie, adding that it had projects lined up with major creative and strategic partners including Guillermo Del Toro, Brad Weston, David Ayer, Annapurna and Amblin.
Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Markets.com, said: "There's been clear-headed commentary only very recently about the perils of looking only at EBITDA. So, Entertainment One's are timely enough. If you exclude a load of one-off charges and write-downs things look pretty good for Entertainment One. The problem is one cannot ignore it and investors are looking at these and turning tail."
"Peppa Pig is still the star attraction and driving the growth in Family & Brands. PJ Masks is doing its bit too, but you have to wonder just how long the Peppa Pig juggernaut lasts. Tastes change and one day eOne will be scratching around looking for something else."
At 0940 BST, the shares were down 4.3% at 440.59p.
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