Getty Images Revenue

Posted on 11/8/2017 by Jim Pickerell | Printable Version | Comments (0)

Moody’s Investor Service reports that total Getty Images revenue for the twelve months ended 30 September 2017 was $836.8 million.

On November 7, 2017 Moody's assigned a B3 rating to Getty Images, Inc.'s new $54.56 million revolving credit facility (RCF) and has withdrawn the B3 rating on the old $150 million RCF. The company's Caa1 Corporate Family Rating (CFR) and stable outlook remain unchanged.

The Moody's Long-term Corporate Obligations rated Caa1 are judged to be of poor standing and subject to very high credit risk. Rating one notch higher is B3. Rating one notch lower is Caa2.



Getty's Caa1 CFR reflects Moody's view that the company will continue to operate with excessive leverage exceeding 10.0x total debt to EBITDA (includes Moody's standard adjustments) and generate neutral to modestly positive free cash flow over the rating horizon due to investments in growth and strategic initiatives.

Moody’s expects Getty to continue to shift more of its sales to Royalty-Free products at higher gross margins (or lower royalty rates), and away from Rights-Managed products where they must pay higher royalty rates. They believe Getty will need additional time to improve the operating performance of its Creative Stills segment to restore credit metrics consistent with a higher debt rating.



Selling Stock has previously estimated that Getty’s Creative Stills Division was generating around $280 million annually. The Moody’s analysis would seem to indicate that Gross sales of that division may be about the same although Getty’s profits from this division might be improving as the mix of RM/RF allows them to keep more of the gross revenue collected. Sales for this division also include iStock images that are licensed through GettyImages.com.

Revenue for the MidStock division is probably in the range of $220 to $230 million and includes iStock and Thinkstock sales. Thinkstock may represent 25% to 30% of these numbers. (For more on iStock sales trends check out this story from 1/5/2016.)

The remaining revenue is probably $250 to $260 million for Editorial and $70 to $80 million for Video.



Moody’s says, “Though cash balances increased following the 2015 distressed exchange transaction, pricing pressures within certain business segments and funding for growth investments have led to stagnant EBITDA and high debt service resulting in adequate liquidity and limited ability to reduce debt balances. Interest expense currently accounts for almost 65% of EBITDA. While Getty expects targeted growth investments to enhance revenue and EBITDA, Moody's believes the timing and extent to which these benefits will be realized is unclear. Moody's also views the company as having greater risk related to its financial policies as we believe growth investments should be funded with equity capital given the high financial leverage.”

“Moody's expects revenue to increase in the low-single digit percentage range over the next 12-18 months, however, we do not anticipate EBITDA to grow materially until after 2018 due to ongoing investments. As of October 30th, the company's debt capital structure comprised a newly amended $54.56 million revolver (undrawn) and $1.8 billion covenant-lite term loan, both maturing in 2019, followed by a first-lien note ($252.5 million outstanding) and an unsecured note ($315.6 million outstanding), both maturing in 2020.”


Copyright © 2017 Jim Pickerell. The above article may not be copied, reproduced, excerpted or distributed in any manner without written permission from the author. All requests should be submitted to Selling Stock at 10319 Westlake Drive, Suite 162, Bethesda, MD 20817, phone 301-461-7627, e-mail: wvz@fpcubgbf.pbz

Jim Pickerell is founder of www.selling-stock.com, an online newsletter that publishes daily. He is also available for personal telephone consultations on pricing and other matters related to stock photography. He occasionally acts as an expert witness on matters related to stock photography. For his current curriculum vitae go to: http://www.jimpickerell.com/Curriculum-Vitae.aspx.  

Comments

Be the first to comment below.

Post Comment

Please log in or create an account to post comments.

Stay Connected

Sign up to receive email notification when new stories are posted.

Follow Us

Free Stuff

Stock Photo Pricing: The Future
In the last two years I have written a lot about stock photo pricing and its downward slide. If you have time over the holidays you may want to review some of these stories as you plan your strategy ...
Read More
Future Of Stock Photography
If you’re a photographer that counts on the licensing of stock images to provide a portion of your annual income the following are a few stories you should read. In the past decade stock photography ...
Read More
Blockchain Stories
The opening session at this year’s CEPIC Congress in Berlin on May 30, 2018 is entitled “Can Blockchain be applied to the Photo Industry?” For those who would like to know more about the existing blo...
Read More
2017 Stories Worth Reviewing
The following are links to some 2017 and early 2018 stories that might be worth reviewing as we move into the new year.
Read More
Stories Related To Stock Photo Pricing
The following are links to stories that deal with stock photo pricing trends. Probably the biggest problem the industry has faced in recent years has been the steady decline in prices for the use of ...
Read More
Stock Photo Prices: The Future
This story is FREE. Feel free to pass it along to anyone interested in licensing their work as stock photography. On October 23rd at the DMLA 2017 Conference in New York there will be a panel discuss...
Read More
Important Stock Photo Industry Issues
Here are links to recent stories that deal with three major issues for the stock photo industry – Revenue Growth Potential, Setting Bottom Line On Pricing and Future Production Sources.
Read More
Recent Stories – Summer 2016
If you’ve been shooting all summer and haven’t had time to keep up with your reading here are links to a few stories you might want to check out as we move into the fall. To begin, be sure to complet...
Read More
Corbis Acquisition by VCG/Getty Images
This story provides links to several stories that relate to the Visual China Group (VCG) acquisition of Corbis and the role Getty Images has been assigned in the transfer of Corbis assets to the Gett...
Read More
Finding The Right Image
Many think search will be solved with better Metadata. While metadata is important, there are limits to how far it can take the customer toward finding the right piece of content. This story provides...
Read More

More from Free Stuff