Clear Channel posts weaker-than-expected profit : US Business

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Radio station operator Clear Channel Communications Inc on Friday posted a weaker-than-expected profit as softness in the overall advertising market overshadowed gains in its outdoor ad unit.

First-quarter net income rose to $799.7 million, or $1.61 a share, from $102.2, or 21 cents per share, a year earlier.

Earnings before discontinued operations, which includes many radio stations that it has sold, amounted to 32 cents per share.

Excluding a gain related to the sale of an advertising company, the profit before discontinued operations was 19 cents a share, falling short of analysts expectations of 21 cents a share, according to Reuters Estimates.

Revenue rose 4 percent to $1.56 billion, although factoring out the impact of the weak dollar, revenue rose only 1 percent.

Last year at the peak of the private equity boom, Clear Channel struck a $20 billion deal to be bought by its private equity firms Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital last year. But the deal fell into litigation this year when THL and Bain filed complaints against their bankers who wanted to pull out of their financing commitment.

The company on Friday said a trial date is currently set for June 2, and that it is unable to estimate a closing date, or if one will happen at all.

Shares rose about 1 percent to $30 in pre-market trading.

(Reporting by Franklin Paul; Editing by Derek Caney)

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