The chairman of GMA Network Inc. is open to revive talks for the sale of a majority stake in the broadcast network.
“I am not the one reviving. The buyers are the one trying to revive. As of now we are not talking, but we are going to talk,” GMA Network chairman and chief executive Felipe Gozon said.
“We are open anytime, but the offer must be acceptable to us,” he said.
Gozon said the owners were talking to the same interested potential investor.
The Gozon, Jimenez and Duavit families own a combined 79 percent of the network, which airs on Channel 7 on free TV.
Majority shareholders of the broadcaster earlier agreed to sell about 30 percent of the company to businessman Ramon Ang, but the negotiation bogged down after more than a year of talks.
Talks with the group of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. also fell through over price and regulatory issues.
The broadcast firm posted a net income of P842 million in the first quarter, down by 17 percent from last year’s P1.01 billon.
Revenues, minus political advertisements, increased 15 percent to P3.76 billion from P3.26 billion last year. Including political ads, revenues in the period fell 4 percent.
Political ads contributed P640 million to the company’s top time in the first quarter last year.
“Even without political ads, we are tracking a stronger year financially and we expect to achieve our growth targets in 2017,” Gozon said.
Gozon said the company’s profit guidance for the year was over P3.9 billion. Last year, the network posted a net income of P3.65 billion, up from P2.13 billion in 2015. (D. Amojelar, MS)