Warner Bros Discovery Inc (NASDAQ:WBD) investors lost their early enthusiasm as the stock opened to trade down 2.4% despite the media conglomerate's improved balance sheet in the second quarter.
Post-acquisition housekeeping saw the group report a US$1.24bn net loss, including some US$1.65 billion of amortization and US$146 million of tax restructuring expenses.
Second quarter revenue amounted to US$10.358 billion, down 4% year-on-year (excluding FX), whilst combined earnings (adjusted EBITDA) came in at US$2.149 billion, up 23% on last year’s comparative.
Warner boasted US$1.7 billion of free cash flow, and, chief executive David Zaslav highlighted “meaningful improvements” to the balance sheet, and, said the recently merged group had upgraded its forecast ‘synergies’ to over US$5 billion.
“This quarter alone we reported over $1.7 billion in free cash flow, and we remain bullish with respect to our delevering story and expect to be comfortably below 4.0x levered by the end of the year and at our target of 2.5-3.0x gross leverage by the close of 2024,” Zaslav said.
A successful US launch of its direct-to-consumer product, Max, has generated positive earnings and is tracking ahead of financial projections, Zaslav added. Albeit, the company noted a 1.8 million reduction in subscriptions for the DTC business – which includes the HBO Max and Discovery+ brands - down to 95.8 million paying users.
Warner repaid US$1.6 billion of debt in the quarter and ended the period with US$3.1 billion of cash.
In New York, Warner stock dropped 2.15% trading at US$12.31 shortly after 10:00am.