Warner Music Posts $4-Million Profit

Warner Music Group Corp. issued its first quarterly report as a public company, announcing net income of $4 million in the second quarter, contrasted with a loss of $48 million during the same period last year. Revenue rose 4.4% to $767 million.

Warner’s operating income during the second quarter was $27 million, contrasted with a loss of $21 million in the same period of 2004. But much of that growth was offset by a 577% increase in the company’s interest expenses, which ballooned to $52 million from $9 million a year earlier.

Warner Music raised $554.2 million in an initial public offering last month, after the company was purchased by a group of private equity investors in March 2004. The investors, including Chief Executive Edgar Bronfman Jr. and Thomas H. Lee Partners, have significantly increased the company’s debt.

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Charles Duhigg