Results and Outlook

FINANCIAL CONDITION, CASH FLOW AND LIQUIDITY

Our main sources of liquidity are parliamentary appropriations for operating, capital and working capital requirements and self-generated revenue such as from selling advertising on our various platforms. As a result of Federal Budget 2012, our annual appropriations are now reduced by $115.0 million annually. Additionally, $47.1 million in funding from the LPIF was phased out in August 2014 and a salary inflation funding freeze was reintroduced for fiscal years 2014-2015 and 2015-2016.

In response to these reductions, new financial pressures on our self-generated revenue, and other funding pressures (as discussed in the Business Model section), we are implementing our new strategic plan, A space for us all, as we address fundamental changes based on a much different funding and revenue model.

Our cash flows from operating, investing and financing activities for the year are summarized below. Our cash balance at March 31, 2015, was $214.9 million, compared to $62.0 million on March 31, 2014. This reflects a temporary position in cash following several one-time receipts this year (as outlined below), which the Corporation will be investing in 2015-2016 in accordance with our strategic priorities. These investments will be made in new content development and infrastructure to increase our agility and lower long-term operating costs. Further details of these objectives can be found in the Strategic Highlights section of this report.

Cash Position

(in thousands of Canadian dollars) For the year ended March 31
2015 2014 % change
Cash - beginning of the year 61,974 51,459 20.4
Changes in the year
Cash from operating activities 116,461 24,418 N/M
Cash used in financing activities (61,765) (58,906) 4.9
Cash from investing activities 98,214 45,003 N/M
Net change 152,910 10,515 N/M
Cash - end of the year 214,884 61,974 N/M

N/M = not meaningful

Cash from operating activities

Cash from operating activities was $116.5 million this year, an increase of $92.0 million compared to last year. Cash from operations is impacted each year by fluctuations in working capital. This year, we also generated additional cash in operations from several sources, the largest being collections on advertising revenue following our broadcast of the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games.

Cash used in financing activities

Cash outflows for financing activities were $61.8 million, higher than last year by $2.9 million, as a result of cash used in February 2015 to settle our remaining obligations under finance leases for mobile and office equipment and to purchase the related assets. Other cash outflows for financing activities in both years presented above relate to interest payments, repayments of the Toronto Broadcasting Centre bonds, payments of notes payable and payments to meet obligations under our satellite transponder finance leases.

Cash from investing activities

Investing activities generated cash of $98.2 million this year, compared to $45.0 million in 2013-2014. The additional cash inflows this year were mostly attributable to the receipt of $33.5 million in net proceeds from the July 2014 sale of a portion of the shares that we hold in SiriusXM. In addition, current year investing activities included dividends received of $16.9 million from our remaining investment in SiriusXM, an increase of $9.8 million over last year. Finally, the higher proceeds from disposing of property and equipment also contributed to the increase in cash inflows from investing activities this year.