KUALA LUMPUR, March 31 — Astro Malaysia Holdings Berhad said today it recorded a 20 per cent growth in net profit for the fourth quarter of the financial year ending January 31, 2022 (FY22) totalling RM126.9 million.

Following economic recovery after the pandemic period, the entertainment and broadcasting group said it recorded a profit of RM460.87 million for the financial year but chairman Tun Zaki Azmi said consumer sentiment and spending power continued to be soft.

"The Group remained cash generative, cost disciplined and proactive in its capital management. The Board has declared a fourth interim dividend of 1.5 sen per share and proposed a final dividend of 0.75 sen per share, rewarding our shareholders with a full year dividend of 6.75 sen per share.

"This represents 76 per cent of FY22 profits, over and above our dividend policy of paying out 75 per cent of PATAMI,” he said referring to the profit after tax and minority interest in a statement.

Meanwhile, group chief executive officer Henry Tan said that the provider has doubled the number of streaming services it offers to six with Netflix, Disney+ Hotstar and TVBAnywhere+ joining Astro GO, HBO Go and iQIYI, with more to come in the next year.

"Over 550,000 homes are already on Ultra and Ulti Boxes, which run on both satellite and broadband,” he said, referring to its 4k set top boxes.

"Meanwhile, Astro GO has 919,000 monthly active users with average weekly viewing time of four hours, while On Demand shows streamed grew 139 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) to 530 million.

"NJOI Prepaid revenue increased by 17 per cent y-o-y, driven by prepaid packs. In FY22, our broadband base increased by 58 per cent y-o-y as more customers bundled broadband with content for convenience and value,” he said.

On December 9 last year, Astro net profit for the third quarter ended October 31, 2021 fell to RM105.92 million from RM164.53 million in the same quarter a year ago

Revenue decreased to RM1.02 billion from RM1.11 billion previously.

The company said its revenue continued to be impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic which saw a 7.6 per cent decline from the corresponding quarter, mainly due to the decrease in subscription, advertising revenue, and merchandise sales, but was offset by an increase in sales of programming rights.