The Australian Turf Club "managed to declare a record post-merger surplus" for the last financial year while being forced to also take an almost A$30M ($21.2M) hit in the winding up of industry broadcaster TVN, according to Adam Pengilly of the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD. Australia's biggest race club "trumpeted an operating profit" of almost A$11M ($7.76M) for the financial year -- a more than A$7M ($4.94M) improvement on the previous 12 months. And it "came against a backdrop of being involved in a bitter split of TVN," which ceased operations in March. The final cost of TVN to the ATC has "long been debated," but financial records reveal the club wrote off A$20.2M ($14.25M) due to the demise of the broadcaster as well as "taking hits on unpaid broadcast rights" owing A$6.7M ($4.7M) and contributed costs of the wind-up -- $A2M ($1.4M). ATC CEO Darren Pearce said, "In the financial results this year, that impacts the bottom line. The Sky deal is a 10-year deal with a top 100 publicly listed company. That contract pretty much guarantees revenue and I know the customer feedback has been a bit mixed on Sky Thoroughbred Central, but we'll continue to work to improve that over time." The ATC rid itself of a further A$17M ($12M) in debt over the past financial year and will pump A$10M ($7M) of its own money into the Rosehill redevelopment to complement A$18M ($12.7M) in state government grants previously provided. Pearce: "To retire A$35 million ($24.7M) in debt in the last couple of years is no mean feat, but we're really focused on improving and enhancing the trading business long term" (SMH, 11/11).
