Pace full year profits up 46%
March 5, 2013
Set-top box maker Pace has revealed that its full-year profit had increased by 46 per cent – boosted by higher demand from US clients such as DirecTV and Comcast.
Pace forecast that 2013 revenue would be almost at last year’s levels.
The company, which supplies decoders to global television operators such as Virgin Media and Sky Deutschland, said it expects operating margin to increase to about 7.5 per cent this year from 6.6 per cent last year.
Pace’s revenue rose 4.1 per cent to $2.4 billion in 2012, helped by higher demand in the fourth quarter. Revenue in the US, the company’s largest market, increased by 24 per cent to $1.32 billion. Pretax profit increased to $80.1 million from $54.7 million.
Strong demand for Pace’s next-generation media servers – advanced set-top boxes such as the DMS7000 and DMC7000 – in the US market prompted the company to raise its earnings forecast twice last year, despite a weak first half.
“We believe the digital PayTV market in North America will continue to see low single-digit annual growth in subscribers for the foreseeable future,” the company said in a statement.