Kuala Lumpur − Astro Malaysia Holdings Berhad (Astro) announced its financial results for the financial year ended 31 January 2015. Revenue grew by 9% y-o-y to RM5.2bn, EBITDA improved by 12% to RM1.8bn and PATAMI increased by 16% to RM519mn.

Astro’s performance was underpinned by expansion in customer base. Sales of value-added products and services also increased ARPU, and control of costs resulted in improved profitability. The performance of GO SHOP, a new homeshopping service, was also encouraging.

Tun Zaki Azmi, Chairman of Astro said, “The Group continues to execute on its business plans, by delivering growth in profits and cashflow; generating consistent returns for shareholders in terms of value and dividends. Accordingly, the Board is pleased to declare a fourth interim dividend of 2.25 cent per share, and subject to shareholders’ approval at the upcoming AGM, a final dividend of 2.00 cent per share. This brings the total dividend in FY15 to 11.0 cent per share, a 22% increase over the FY14 pay out.”

Dato’ Rohana Rozhan, Chief Executive Officer of Astro said, “We have been able to generate growth in FY15 in spite of a soft consumer market. This is driven by our ability to provide depth and breadth of choices to all Malaysians. We see momentum in take-up of our products and services across our pay-TV, NJOI, Astro on the Go (AOTG) and OTT platforms. Our customer base grew by 547k to 4.4mn representing 63% penetration of total Malaysian TV households (FY14: 56%). ARPU rose to RM99 from RM96, as more customers subscribed to HD, PVR, Multiroom, Superpack and Valuepack.”

Take-up of services such as HD rose 16% to 1.9mn, PVR increased by 34% to 715k, Multiroom expanded 24% to 386k, while Superpack and Valuepack subscribers rose 10% and 78% to 967k and 348k respectively.

In FY15, Astro launched 12 new channels, increasing its total channels to 184, of which 50 are in HD. Today our TV offering is further strengthened by new packages like Astro Superpack Plus, the new Korean Pack, as well as a new subscription VOD service, Astro Plus.