Tencent Music Lost USD127 Million in Fourth Quarter After Royalties Splurge
Dou Shicong
DATE:  Mar 20 2019
/ SOURCE:  yicai

(Yicai Global) March 20 -- Tencent Music Entertainment Group, the leading music streaming firm in China, lost USD127 million in the fourth quarter of last year after coughing up cash for royalties.

Total revenue soared 50.5 percent to USD785 million, according to TME's earnings report published yesterday. Its share price [NYSE:TME] sank 2.83 percent to USD18.57 after the report was released.

The Shenzhen-based firm paid USD221 million to Warner Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment in one-off payments, which were the main reason behind the loss. Using Non-International Financial Reporting Standards, which exclude non-recurring expenses, the company actually earned USD133 million over the period.

Over the full year, income surged 72.9 percent to nearly USD2.8 billion, with net profitable attributable to shareholders tallying USD267 million, after the music label payouts.

Tencent Music, which went public in December, is so far the only music streaming platform to turn a profit over a full year. Even global industry leader Spotify, which struck an equity exchange with TME last year, took until the fourth quarter of 2018 to log its first profitable three-month period.

Editor: James Boynton

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Keywords:   Tencent Music,Spotify,Loss