Russia’s CTC Media Posts Net Profit up 45% to $145.7 Million

MOSCOW — CTC Media, Russia’s leading independent media company, has announced its unaudited consolidated financial results for 2010’s Q4 and the full year 2010.

Last year, the company’s total operating revenues were up 19 percent to $601 million, year-on-year. In the year’s fourth quarter, that figure was up 23 percent to $222 million. The company’s net revenues increased by 261 percent to $75.3 million in the final quarter, and by 45 percent to $145.7 million for the entire year, from 2009.

“2010 was a record-setting year for CTC Media,” the company’s CEO Anton Kudryashov said in a statement. “The group’s operating revenues calculated in roubles were already higher than in the pre-crisis year 2008.” He attributed the increase to the resumed growth of the Russian television market.

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“In accordance with a previously announced strategy, we made investments in the development of smaller channels and the creation of our own ad sale agency, which had an impact on our spending in Q4 and the entire year,” he went on to say.

“We also launched the social networking web site Videomore and will continue to invest in that interesting project in 2011.”

CTC Media, which operates the Russian television channels CTC, Domashny and DTV, as well as TV assets in Kazakhstan and Moldova, reported a 22 percent increase in revenues from advertising in Russia in Q4 and a 13 percent increase in the entire year, while OIBDA was up 19 percent to $104.4 million.

According to Kudryashov, based on the improving market situation and a decrease in capital spending, the company will pay $100 million in dividends this year, of which $25 million is to be paid in March, and the same amount in each of the year’s remaining quarters.