Pace profit jumps on North American sales

SALTAIRE-based set-top box maker Pace today revealed that its full-year profit had increased by 46 per cent.
By The Newsroom
Published 5th Mar 2013, 08:29 BST

Its performance was boosted by higher demand from North American clients such as Comcast Corp and DirecTV.

Pace forecast that 2013 revenue would be almost at last year’s levels.

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The company, which supplies decoders to global television operators like Virgin Media Inc, Sky Deutschland AG and AT&T Inc, 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 $2.4bn in 2012, helped by higher demand in the fourth quarter. Revenue in North America, the company’s largest market, increased by about 24 per cent to $1.32bn.

Pretax profit increased to $80.1m from $54.7m.

Strong demand for Pace’s next-generation media servers - advanced set-top boxes such as the DMS7000 and DMC7000 - in its North American 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.

The set-top box market has become fiercely competitive with the entry of companies like Apple Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Netflix Inc.

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