OREANDA-NEWS. August 12, 2013. CTC Media, Inc. (“CTC Media” or “the Company”) (NASDAQ: CTCM), Russia’s leading independent media company, announced its unaudited consolidated financial results for the second quarter and six months ended June 30, 2013.

Q2 FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS

Total revenues up 13% year-on-year in ruble terms to USD206.0 million

OIBDA of USD 57.8 million, with an OIBDA margin of 28.0%

Fully diluted earnings per share of USD 0.20 (Q2 2012: \\$0.22)

Net cash position of USD 142.4 million at the end of the period

Payment of cash dividends of USD 0.16 per share

Board of Directors currently intends to pay aggregate cash dividends of approximately USD 0.63 per share in 2013 and has declared a cash dividend of USD 0.16 per share (or approximately USD 25 million in the aggregate) to be paid on or about September 27, 2013 to shareholders of record as of September 2, 2013, with further dividends anticipated in the fourth quarter of 2013  

OPERATING HIGHLIGHTS

Appointment of Yuliana Slashcheva as Chief Executive Officer as of August 1

Combined Russian national inventory was fully sold-out for Q2 and is approximately 95% committed for the full year

CTC Media repurchased 1.98 million shares of common stock as of July 31, 2013 as part of the previously announced 2.5 million share repurchase program for use under the Company’s 2013 Equity Incentive Plan

Launch of an innovative touch-free motion activated cooking app under the Domashny brand

Yuliana Slashcheva, Chief Executive Officer of CTC Media, commented, “I am delighted to be joining CTC Media at this dynamic time for the TV business. The CTC Media team delivered a strong second quarter, with the Russian channels posting year-on-year audience share growth both in prime time and off prime, maintaining the second place among television holdings in the target demographic of everyone aged between 10 and 45.

“CTC channel target audience share was up year-on-year by 14% to a strong 11.6%. The main drivers of ratings growth included new episodes of the “Kitchen” series, “Traffic Light” sitcom and “Uralskie Pelmeni” comedy show, as well as a premiere comedy series “Think Like A Woman”. CTC was the only one among the TOP-6 leading television channels in Russia that managed to demonstrate audience share growth in the second quarter despite continuing viewership fragmentation. The team is very excited about the soon to be launched Fall schedule, which will feature a number of highly-awaited premieres, such as “Molodezhka” – a dramedy series about a youth hockey team, as well as new seasons of locally produced hit shows, including “Kitchen” and “The 80’s”.

“The Group’s revenue growth dynamics was higher than the estimated growth of the Russian TV advertising market in the quarter (13% vs approximately 11% in ruble terms). Domashny channel’s revenue was up 21% year-on-year in rubles, despite some stagnation in the overall ratings development as the team continues to work to strengthen the channel’s demographic profile and to grow the core audience segment “females 25-35”. Significant sales growth posted by the channel obviously demonstrates the effective monetization of its commercially attractive audience. This spring, Domashny also launched an innovative touch-free culinary app for mobile devices that provides access to thousands of recipes from all over the world.

“Peretz channel’s revenues were also up year-on-year, although at a more moderate growth level. The channel, which was named “Brand of 2012” by EFFIE Awards and is highly demanded by advertisers, is continuing to refresh its positioning and programming grid. We expect to launch around 10 brand new projects in the fall season.

“Channel 31 in Kazakhstan continued to enhance its inventory monetization efficiency and grew its revenues by 17% year-on-year in US dollar terms in the second quarter.

“On the digital media front, we are pleased that the CTC channel is among the TOP-5 most popular Smart TV widgets in Russia, and the reach of the Company’s new media projects continues to increase. In the second quarter, the number of unique monthly visitors across all digital platforms on which CTC Media is present averaged 8.7 million, a twofold increase year-on-year.

“In June 2013 the Company paid out a quarterly cash dividend of USD 0.16 per share and ended the quarter with net cash of USD 142 million. As previously announced, during 2013, the Company intends to pay out quarterly dividends in an aggregate of USD 0.63 per share, which is a more than a 20% year-on-year increase compared to 2012.

“Looking ahead, CTC Media Russian channels’ inventory is now approximately 95% committed for 2013 at higher average prices than last year. We continue to expect the Russian television advertising market to grow by up to 10% year-on-year in ruble terms for the full year 2013 and our Russian television advertising revenues to grow in line with the market. We also continue to expect to deliver an OIBDA margin similar to the 2012 level of 32%.”