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Papers, TV and cable boost Quebecor Inc.'s Q1 profit

10.06.2008 20:02 Arts - Source: cbc.ca

Three-month TSX trading in Quebecor's B stock

Media holding company Quebecor Inc. on Tuesday reported a much higher first-quarter profit, with cable, TV and print operations at its 54.7 per cent-owned subsidiary Quebecor Media Inc. all doing better than last year.

Quebecor Media's cable company Videotron Ltd. and newspaper publisher Sun Media reported operating gains of more than 30 per cent, while French-language TV broadcaster TVA Group saw profit increase even more sharply, although on a smaller base.

The newspaper increase was attributed to the purchase of Osprey Media in 2007, while the cable business grew with higher customer demand, the company said in a news release.

Profit from continuing operations was $44.8 million (70 cents a share) for the three months ended March 31, compared with $3.2 million (five cents a share) a year earlier.

Revenue was $877.1 million, compared to $751.1 million a year earlier.

Printing subsidiary Quebecor World's move into bankruptcy protection in January added to the gains. Quebecor World is carried as a discontinued operation on Quebecor Inc.'s books.

Before it went into bankruptcy protection on Jan. 21, Quebecor Inc. had a "net asset deficiency" of $761.3 million, because Quebecor World had more liabilities than assets. Quebecor Inc. also had losses of $326.5 million mostly because of currency translation losses resulting from its investment in Quebecor World.

When Quebecor World went into bankruptcy protection, and was reclassified as a discontinued operation on Quebecor Inc.'s books, the net asset deficiency and losses were reversed.

That change meant that Quebecor Inc.'s 2008 profits were boosted by $383.3 million, raising the final profit to $428.1 million ($6.66 a share). In 2007, discontinued operations cost the company $17.8 million, producing a final loss of $14.6 million (23 cents).

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