Mediaset España confirms Borja Prado as new president and approves a net profit of €181M

The board of directors of Mediaset Spain ha aprobado las cuentas anuales del grupo correspondientes a 2021, que confirman un beneficio neto de 181M€. Además, ante el reciente anuncio de Alejandro Echevarría de su intención de no continuar como presidente de este órgano, ha acordado proponer a Borja Prado como nuevo presidente.

Los 181 millones de euros suponen un incremento del 1,3% respecto al resultado registrado en 2020 (178,7M€). Esta cifra representa un margen sobre ingresos netos del 20,7%, as well as a profit per share of €0.58. On the other hand, it has agreed to propose to the Ordinary General Meeting of Shareholders a program to repurchase own shares worth €150 M with the legal limit of 10% of the share capital.

On the other hand, Borja Prado will become the president of the board of directors of Mediaset España. Prado is, after Alejandro Echevarría, the oldest Spanish advisor of the media group. After holding the status of independent director for 12 years, he was re-elected as a proprietary director at the 2018 General Meeting. The Board of Directors has considered that his “excellent professional and business career and his extensive experience in the corporate field” make him the “ideal candidate” to hold the position of president of the company. Likewise, the board of directors has approved to propose the re-election of its current directors, reducing 12 to 11 its members and thus amortizing the vacancy of Echevarría, who will occupy the Honorary Presidency from Mediaset Spain.

This appointment will be formally made at the first meeting of the Board of Directors that takes place after the celebration of the Ordinary General Meeting of Shareholders, scheduled for next April, in which Paolo Vasile as CEO. Vasile himself, regarding the economic balance of results, affirms that this is “an unbeatable result of the second year of the crisis of this pandemic that has devastated our lives.” "Thanks to the professionalism and effort of the entire Mediaset España family, always up to the task even in the most adverse conditions, we have not only managed to maintain the result of 2020 but we have improved it to obtain a profit of 181 million euros. Adding to this figure the 178.7 million obtained in 2020, we have profits close to 360 million euros in the two years of the pandemic, a complicated context of which we are beginning to glimpse its end”, he added.

Leader in advertising investment

Last year, the group's net turnover amounted to €876.3M, 4.7% more than the figure obtained in 2020, of €836.6M. Gross advertising revenue has also increased, a 9.8%, up to €833.6M, compared to €759.1M the previous year, as well as net advertising revenues, which have grown by 9.2% up to €796.7M, compared to the €729.3M registered in 2020.

The advertising marketing of Own Media has generated €806.6M of income, 8.7% more year-on-year, a growth that highlights the company's ability to make its audience profitable and its solid leadership in young people and commercial targets. It has also registered a substantial increase in the sale of advertising for Third Party Media, with a 55.6% year-on-year more up to €27.1M. In this way, always according to data from Infoadex, Mediaset España has once again led television advertising investment for the eighteenth consecutive year with a market share of 43.2%.

Regarding “Other income”, which mainly includes those from the distributor's third-party sales strategy Mediterranean Mediaset España Group, those of the digital subscription platform Mitele PLUS and those generated by the film production subsidiary Telecinco Cinema, the group has obtained 79.6M€.

Costs and EBITDA

The group's total costs in 2021 have been at 633.4M€, 8.5% more than in 2020 (€584M), a year marked by the general stoppage in audiovisual production beyond live content due to confinement and restrictions derived from the pandemic and in which the celebration of the event was postponed. Euro Football Cup 2021, therefore calculating its costs in said year.

As a result, Mediaset España has recorded a EBITDA of €243M, which represents a margin on net income of 27.7%; and an EBIT of €225.3M, equivalent to a margin on net income of 25.7%.

Finally, the group has achieved a cash generation of €252M, €51.1M more than the previous year, and has closed 2021 with a positive net financial position of €266.3M, €143M more than at the end of 2020.