OREANDA-NEWS. November 08, 2010. CTC Media, Inc. (“CTC Media” or “the Company”) (NASDAQ: CTCM), Russia’s leading independent media company, announced its unaudited consolidated financial results for the third quarter, ended September 30, 2010, reported the press-centre of CTC Media.

THIRD QUARTER FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS
Total revenues of USD 125.3 million – up 15% year-on-year in ruble terms

Russian advertising revenues up 11% year-on-year in ruble terms

OIBDA up 6% year-on-year to USD 40.7 million, with an OIBDA margin of 32.5%

Fully diluted earnings per share of USD 0.16 (Q3 2009: USD 0.16)

Net cash position of USD 146.2 million at the end of the period

Increased dividend – USD 0.32 per share cash dividend to be paid on or about December 31, 2010 to stockholders of record as of December 1, 2010, contributing to total aggregate dividends of approximately USD 80 million in 2010

OPERATING HIGHLIGHTS
Combined Russian national inventory fully sold out for Q3 and almost fully sold out for the remainder of 2010

Average national Russian advertising prices up 8% and regional prices up 30% year-on-year in ruble terms in Q3

Target audience share for the Domashny Network up year-on-year from 2.9% to 3.3% for the first 9 months of 2010

Target audience share for the CTC Network stable year-on-year at 12.0% for the first 9 months of 2010

Average combined 4+ audience share of 12.7% for all Russian networks in Q3 and 12.8% for the first 9 months of 2010

All three Russian CTC Media channels received prestigious Russian Television Academy ‘TEFI’ awards for the first time

Anton Kudryashov, Chief Executive Officer of CTC Media, commented: “We have continued to benefit from the growth in the Russian TV advertising market with a fully sold-out position and 15% year-on-year growth in total operating revenues in ruble terms in the third quarter. Our third quarter Russian advertising sales were 11% higher in ruble terms than in the third quarter of 2009 and 7% higher than in the third quarter of 2008, which was the record year for the Russian TV advertising industry. The regional TV advertising market has also started to grow again following the financial crisis, and our station group revenues were up 13% year-on-year in the quarter in ruble terms. Our CIS Group revenues were up 11% year-on-year in US dollar terms, while our sublicensing and own production revenues grew by 147% year-on-year.

“We are now almost fully sold out for the year, and the pricing environment has improved in the fourth quarter with national advertising prices up approximately 20% year-on-year in ruble terms. We therefore expect our total operating revenues to grow by approximately 13% for the full-year in ruble terms. We continue to expect our operating expenses to increase by up to 20% for the full year in ruble terms, when excluding the non-recurring items in 2009, which reflects our ongoing investments in the programming, marketing, and coverage of our secondary networks, higher stock-based compensation expenses and the development of our internal advertising sales house. We continue to expect to deliver a full-year OIBDA margin of more than 35%.

“Our internal advertising sales house has now been incorporated, and we are currently finalizing the structure and terms of the new agreement with Video International, which will take effect from the beginning of 2011. In the meantime, our negotiations with advertisers for 2011 are underway.

“Our financial position continues to strengthen with increasing cash balances and no debt outstanding, and, the Board of Directors has now declared a further dividend of approximately USD 50 million to be paid in the fourth quarter. The resulting total of USD 80 million of dividend payments in 2010 is twice the amount that was originally anticipated for the year, and reflects our philosophy to return surplus free cash flow to shareholders. The intention is to continue to make quarterly dividend payments, and for the total amount of dividends paid each year to increase in line with the performance of the business and subject to the ongoing evaluation of the investment opportunities available to us.”