Foxtel and Webjet record strong yearly results

Foxtel and Webjet have both reported strongly yearly results.

The pay television provider increased full year earnings by 15.5 per cent as it gained new subscribers and retained more existing subscribers.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose to $551 million from $477 million a year earlier, the Sydney-based company said in a statement.

Subscriber numbers grew 2.5 per cent during the year to more than 1.65 million.

Revenue grew by almost six per cent, to $2.14 billion.

Foxtel said it remained confident that the proposed takeover of Austar United Communications Ltd did not substantially lessen competition in any market.

"Merging the two companies will not have a negative impact on competition but will rather see Foxtel offering a range of consumer benefits," the company said.

Those would include new digital services to regional Australia and investing about $600 million a year in new and original Australian content, Foxtel said.

Foxtel on July 11 announced it had agreed to buy Austar. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) released a statement of issues on July 22, in which it said a Foxtel takeover of Austar could create a near monopoly.

Foxtel's full year revenue rose six per cent to $2.142 billion, driven by strong growth in the more expensive iQ and high definition services.

Foxtel still said it was a tough environment with consumers unwilling to spend money.

"While our financial performance for the year was solid, subscriber growth remains testing as a result of the ongoing reluctance of consumers to commit to new discretionary spend," chief executive, Kim Williams, said in the statement.

"Our existing subscribers continue to value our service highly as reflected through increased uptake of our iQ, High Definition and multi-room services."

Webjet expects to double profit result

Online travel agent, Webjet Ltd, has lifted annual profit by five per cent, and said it expects to double the result in the current year.

Webjet reported a net profit of $11.006 million, up from $10.517 million in the prior year.

Revenue was 18 per cent higher, at $45.719 million from $38.877 million in 2009/10.

Webjet declared a final dividend of $0.06, fully franked, taking full year dividends to $0.11 after $0.105 in 2009/10.

Webjet said the result for 2010/11 absorbed a $700,000 loss on its fledgling operation in the US.

"The core operation in Australia and New Zealand therefore produced an underlying full year profit increase of 10 per cent year on year," Webjet managing director, John Guscic, said.

"Webjet will substantially extend its powerful aggregation model into a multi-supply hotel offering which will see an increase from the current 69,000 approximate hotels on offer, to over 100,000 hotels by January 2012," Guscic said.

"This will mean that Webjet will offer over one million rooms for sale worldwide every day.

"We consequently expect TTV and profit to grow in excess of 10 per cent for the year 2011/1

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