Sýn shares stay flat after TV news shutdown

Shares in Icelandic media company Sýn have not moved since the company announced it would end the production and broadcasting of television news, mbl.is reported. The shares remain at 19.8 Icelandic krónur, unchanged on Monday and Tuesday and at the close of the previous trading day.

Sýn announced on Monday morning that its television news broadcasts and the programme Ísland í dag would be discontinued from September 1. The decision ended nearly 40 years of continuous television news at Sýn and its predecessor companies.

More than 10 employees were laid off as a result. Sýn chief executive Herdís Dröfn Fjeldsted said the television news operation had been unsustainable for a long time and that the decision had been unavoidable.

So far, the decision appears to have had no significant effect on investors’ valuation of the company. Sýn’s shares were also priced at 19.80 krónur on August 24, when the company announced that talks with Síminn over the sale of the media outlets Bylgjan and Vísir had ended without an agreement.

Sýn published its second-quarter results only a few days before announcing the changes. The company reported EBITDAaL profit of 995 million krónur, up 39% from the same period last year. Revenue totalled 5.6 billion krónur, an increase of 2.8% year on year.