ABS-CBN Corp. on Monday said it is shutting down its remittance businesses in the United States, Canada and United Kingdom, amid “significant losses.”
In a disclosure to the stock exchange, the multimedia giant said ABS-CBN Global Remittance, Inc., ABS-CBN Canada Remittance, Inc., and ABS-CBN Europe Remittance, Ltd. will halt operations by June 30, 2018.
“The decision to cease business operations is based on the collective financial performance of the companies in the past years which showed significant losses. As a result, the business was no longer considered viable,” ABS-CBN said.
ABS-CBN said the accumulated losses of the remittance companies reached P16.18 million ($310,233).
“The cessation of the business operations of the Companies has no material impact on the business, financial position, performance and operations of ABS-CBN Corporation,” the company said.
The three remittance companies are under ABS-CBN Global, which also operates The Filipino Channel (TFC).
According to ABS-CBN’s 2017 financial report, the remittance business generated P347 million in revenues for ABS-CBN Global, a 14% increase from the previous year’s P305 million due to “significant increase in volume of remittance transactions.”
Remittances accounted for only a small percentage of ABS-CBN Global’s total revenues, which reached P5.97 billion in 2017, 6% up from P5.65 billion during the same period a year ago.
For the full year, ABS-CBN booked a net income of P3.16 billion, 10% lower than P3.52-billion profit in 2016.
In 2016, revenues spiked due to political ads during the presidential elections.
Excluding 2016’s election-related revenues and expenses, ABS-CBN estimated its net income would have increased 29% in 2017.
ABS-CBN said revenues fell 2% to P40.7 billion in 2017.
