By Mike Boyer and John Eckberg
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Multi-Color Corp., the Cincinnati-based label and packaging services company, reported record results for fiscal 2003.

For the fourth quarter ended March 31, Multi-Color's net income increased 72 percent to $1.96 million, or 46 cents a share, from $1.14 million, or 27 cents a share, a year ago.

Fourth-quarter revenues rose 63 percent to $28.6 million from $17.5 million a year ago.

The revenue growth was fueled by acquisition of Dec Tech, its heat-transfer label business, and Quick Pak, its Cincinnati packaging services business.

For the full-year, Multi-Color reported record net income of $6.3 million, or $1.48 a share, up 35 percent from $4.7 million, or $1.14 a share, reported in the prior year.

In other earnings news:

• Broadwing Inc.: The company, which is returning to its local telephone roots, reported first-quarter earnings from continuing operations of 16 cents a share despite an 11 percent decline in revenues.

For the three months ended March 31, the company, which will return to its old name of Cincinnati Bell Inc. at the end of the month, said net income was $124 million, or 55 cents a share, after including 39 cents a share in noncash, one-time gains from a change in accounting rules. Analysts had expected a loss of 5 cents a share in the quarter.

In the same period last year, the company, which is selling its money-draining national broadband business, reported a loss of $1.8 billion, or $8.38 a share, after write-offs for the broadband business.

Despite the decline in revenue to $481 million, mainly from the Broadwing Communications unit, the company said revenues from its Cincinnati Bell businesses rose 2 percent to $297 million, driven by sales of data and Internet services to business customers.

The company said it had a negative cash flow of $31 million in the first quarter, mainly because of one-time fees of $46 million for its financial restructuring.

Excluding restructuring fees and cash consumed at its Broadwing Communications units, the company said cash flow from its remaining operations was $47 million.

The company said it remains on track to complete the sale of the broadband business and finish its financial restructuring this summer.

• Regent Communications: The Covington-based company saw first-quarter 2003 operating income increase 13 percent to $3.4 million from $3 million in the first quarter of 2002 and expects solid results in the months to come.

"We look forward to more positive developments during the rest of 2003," said Terry Jacobs, chairman and chief executive of the group that owns or operates 76 stations in 16 markets in 11 states.

The company reported net income of $110,000 for the quarter, or zero cents a share, compared with a loss of $6.1 million, or 17 cents a share, in the same period last year.

For the first quarter of 2003, net broadcast revenues increased 29 percent to $16.7 million from $13 million reported for the first quarter of 2002.

Regent expects same-station net broadcast revenues to increase by 1 percent to 2 percent in the second quarter of 2003 over the second quarter of 2002 and expects same-station operating income to be flat to up 1 percent.

E-mail mboyer@enquirer.com or jeckberg@enquirer.com.