APTT declares 0.3 S cent DPU for Q1, proposes 1-for-4 rights issue to pare debt

PAY TV firm Asian Pay Television Trust (APTT) on Tuesday declared an ordinary interim distribution per unit (DPU) of 0.30 Singapore cent for its first quarter ended March 31, 2020, unchanged from a year ago.

The DPU will be paid on May 15, after books closure on May 8.

Revenue for the quarter rose 8.3 per cent to S$79.3 million from S$73.2 million and Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) increased 9.5 per cent to S$48.3 million from S$44.1 million a year ago.

The quarter's revenue and Ebitda were mainly driven by higher non-subscription revenue generated from airtime advertising sales and others, the trustee-manager of APTT said.

Separately, the trustee-manager has proposed a renounceable non-underwritten rights issue to raise gross proceeds of about S$46.2 million.

Some S$45 million of the net proceeds would be used to pare APTT's offshore debt, enabling the trust to save about S$2.9 million in annual interest cost and strengthen its financial position.

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The remaining S$0.1 million of the net proceeds would be used for working capital, the trustee-manager added.

A total of about 361.3 million rights units would be issued at 12.8 Singapore cents each, on the basis of one rights unit for every four existing units held by unitholders as at a record date to be determined.

The issue price is at a discount of about 3.8 per cent to APTT's last traded price of 13.3 Singapore cents on Monday, when it closed up 0.1 cent or 0.8 per cent.

APTT's trustee-manager, in its personal capacity, and three other unitholders have each given an irrevocable undertaking to subscribe for their entitlements and to apply for any excess rights units.

The total commitments under the irrevocable undertakings would be equal to the total number of rights units available under the rights issue.

The three unitholders are Araedis Investment, Hsiao Han Shen and Lu Fang Ming.

Mr Lu is a director and current majority owner of the trustee-manager, while Araedis Investment's parent firm Araedis Global Investment owns Da Da Digital Convergence, the proposed future majority owner of the trustee-manager.

Da Da Digital is controlled by Dai Yung Huei, the founder of Taiwan-listed Dafeng TV.

In February 2020, Da Da Digital had entered into a sale-and-purchase agreement (SPA) with Gear Rise, the parent firm of the trustee-manager's sole shareholder, Dynami Vision, to acquire a 65 per cent stake in Dynami.

The SPA is subject to, among others, approvals from regulatory bodies in Taiwan and lenders of APTT and Taiwan Broadband Communications Group.

The rights issue is subject to approval in-principle from the Singapore Exchange for the listing of and quotation for the rights units on the bourse's mainboard.