A day of passion in Piazza Affari for Mediaset shares. The stock of the Biscione started the session immediately in sharp decline, until it was suspended with a theoretical loss of more than eight points. The stock was later re-admitted to trading and extended the losses beyond ten points. Many brokers who cut their targets on the stock this morning: Barclays lowered it to 1,60 from 1,90 (rating "equalweight"), Nomura to 1,70 from 1,95 euro (rating "reduce"), Ubs to 1,7 from 2,1 ("neutral" rating), Natixis to 1,4 from 2 euro ("reduce" rating) and Banca Akros to 1,9 euro from 2,55 euro ("hold" rating). The collapse is related to bad quarterly accounts which the group released last night, with markets closed.
Between January and March (period including the effects of the consolidation of EI Tower) Mediaset's net profits plunge 85% compared to the same period last year, going from 68,4 to 10,3 million, while advertising revenue of the subsidiaries Publitalia '80 and Digitalia '08 fell by 10,2%.
I consolidated revenues of the group fell from 1.112,1 to 977,8 million and Ebit slipped from 135,8 to 38,9 million. There net financial position it went from -1.775,5 million at the end of 2011 to -1.675,2 million as at 31 March, while the Free Cash Flow amounted to 256,5 million from 160,3 million. Furthermore, the prospects for the coming months are also weak.
The situation did not improve in April and May on the advertising front, as confirmed yesterday by the company's top management in the conference call. From this point of view, a slight improvement is expected only in the second half of the year, but however, 2012 will close with a lower net profit than in 2011.
