JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African pay television company MultiChoice Group reported a 30% drop in full-year operating profit, hit by inflationary pricing across its markets, currency volatility and constrained consumer spending.
Operating profit, excluding interest income, fell to 7.1 billion rand ($381.5 million) from 10.2 billion rand for the year ended March 31, the group said.
Its pay-TV and video streaming businesses operate across 50 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
The results included a 4.5 billion rand impact related to foreign currency weakness. Stripping this out, its trading profit grew by 24%.
Reported group revenue fell by 5% to 56 billion rand on weaker local currencies and consumer pressure. On an organic basis, revenue grew by 3%, the company said.
Its active subscribers declined by 9% to 15.68 million.
"Subscriber growth is typically more muted in a year that follows the FIFA World Cup, but financial year 2024 came in below trend as the subscriber base declined year on year in the face of a deteriorating macro and consumer environment," MultiChoice said.
($1 = 18.6128 rand)
(Reporting by Nqobile Dludla, Editing by Louise Heavens)