Mediaset profit drops to 261 million, dividend for shareholders confirmed

In a difficult year for the media, not only in Europe, Mfe-Mediaset holds: the profit for 2022 drops, but the dividend remains unchanged and advertising in the first quarter of the year is stable. Enough to make the managing director of the group, Pier Silvio Berlusconi, say that 2023 will also close with profits and that the results are “beyond expectations”.

Last year, the profit pertaining to the group was 216 million against 374 in 2021, while at the parent company level, which is compared with a year that had recorded the maxi capital gain on Ei Towers, the profit was by 27 million compared to the previous 214 million. Net revenues amount to 2,801 million compared to 2,914 in 2021. The dividend will therefore be confirmed at 0.05 euro for both A and B shares with ten voting rights.

For this year the goal of the Mfe-Mediaset group “will be to achieve, even in a substantially stationary advertising context compared to 2022, a positive consolidated operating result, net result and cash generation”, confirms the Biscione. “We are really proud of the work carried out in 2022 by all areas of the group: we acted quickly to reshape all the publishing and commercial activities, also resulting in a significant reduction in costs”, explains Berlusconi, underlining how everything happened “without renouncing to finance development: with the cash flow generated we supported the takeover bid on Mediaset España, the treasury share purchase project and the growth of the stake in ProsiebenSat1».

There is still little visibility on advertising, even if in Italy in the first quarter of this year it is stable compared to the same period in 2022, the only growing quarter (+2%) last year. In Spain, after the first two months “characterized by a still rather difficult market context”, the Biscione sees collection “progressively improving both in March and, as far as visible so far, in April”.

From abroad, where the Alfa Romeo always looks to a large operation, the attention remains on Prosieben, of which Mfe-Mediaset is largely the first shareholder with almost 30% of the shares. “We agree on the shift of focus to the core business of TV and we are happy that it happens after years of different strategies,” explains Alfa Romeo’s financial director, Marco Giordani. Which has not yet made contact with the Czech PPF group, which recently rose to 10% of Prosieben, but “a stable shareholding structure is a benefit for society”. below. bal.