Entravision Q4’s revenue was $60.1 million, down 6% compared to Q4 of 2012. The decline was solely due to almost $9 million of nonrecurring political revenues that were booked during the quarter. Of the overall decrease, $2.7 million was generated by their television segment and was also attributable to a decrease in political ad revenue. $1.0 million of the overall decrease was generated by the radio side, also from a decrease in political ad revenue.
For television, the decline in political revenues was primarily offset by strong advertising performance and growth in retransmission fees. On a core basis, consolidated revenues increased 9% in the quarter.
Due to the absence of approximately $9 million of political ad revenue in the quarter, consolidated adjusted EBITDA decreased 22% to $19.8 million compared to $25.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2012, and free cash flow decreased 14% to $13.5 million compared to $15.6 million in Q4 2012.
Said Walter Ulloa, Entravision CEO: “Our fourth quarter results marked a strong end to a highly successful year for Entravision. We generated solid core advertising revenues in the fourth quarter and full year, and consistently outperformed the broader television and radio industries. At the same time, our conservative approach to debt management continue to deliver strong free cash flow generation and improved net income over Q4 2012.
We prepaid $10 million of term loans under our senior secured term loan credit facility and have entered into a 2-year forward interest rate swap agreement that will become effective December 31, 2015 and provide for fixed rate interest rate of 5.23% on $186 million of our outstanding debt. We also initiated the first quarter dividend in Entravision’s history.
During the year, we further extended our revenue streams and strengthened our multimedia platform advertising campaigns through deeper integration of our online mobile and social offerings. Our digital and core radio and television properties all remained strongly positioned within the nation’s most densely populated Latino markets at a time where interest in targeting and reaching Latino consumers continues to increase.”
Although Q4 was down, Ulloa benefited from a successful Q3 refinancing of debt and managed to reduce interest expense by $5.1 million in Q4. The savings contributed to net income of $9.5 million in the quarter compared to $7.7 million in Q4 2012. Additionally, earnings per share increased to $0.11 per share for the quarter compared to $0.09 per share in Q4 2012.
Entravision also announced its board has approved a quarterly cash dividend to shareholders of $0.025 per share of the Company’s Class A, Class B and Class U common stock, in an aggregate amount of approximately $2.2 million. The quarterly dividend will be payable on 3/31 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on 3/14, and the common stock will trade ex-dividend on 3/21. As previously announced, the company currently anticipates that future cash dividends will be paid on a quarterly basis.
