Southern Cross counts cost of royal prank

Print Page Updated: 02:06:43 AM, Tue 19 February 2013

Shares in have surged despite the company announcing its net profit has more than halved.

The owner of the 2Day FM radio station at the centre of the royal prank call says profit for the first half of the financial year tumbled to $45.1 million.

However, its underlying profit came in slightly better than expected at $47.6 million.

The company's chief financial officer Steve Kelly says the hoax scandal has so far cost the company millions of dollars.

"The adjustment is the UK incident that occurred in December and reflects the three weeks of that incident," he explained.

"The $2.2 million on the revenue line is really revenue that was cancelled from the schedule, not lost opportunity, and the $1.4 million in expenses is largely made up of legal costs and the amount that we have reserved for the family."

Investors looked past these one-off losses, pushing the company's shares 9.4 per cent higher to $1.345.

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