Zee Entertainment’s Quarterly Profit Misses Estimate

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd.’s profit missed analyst estimate in a seasonally weak quarter.

Net profit fell 85 percent to Rs 231 crore on a year-on-year basis, the Mumbai-based media company said in an exchange filing today. That compares with the Bloomberg consensus estimate of Rs 272 crore.

The profit miss may be because of higher marketing cost for the recently launched ZEE5 and investment in original programming hours, according to an Edelweiss report.

Revenue rose 13 percent year-on-year to Rs 1,725 crore, beating consensus forecast by Rs 14 crore.

• Advertising revenue rose 23.9 percent to Rs 1,049.6 crore.
• Total subscription revenue fell 2 percent to Rs 546.5 crore.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose 8 percent to Rs 505 crore, higher than the consensus estimate of Rs 494 crore. Ebitda margin contracted 80 basis points to 29.3 percent.

The company announced a dividend of Rs 2.90 per share.

Shares of the media firm closed 0.4 percent lower at Rs 589, its third day of decline on the BSE Ltd.