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Q1 Results: Zee Entertainment’s Profit Surges, Beats Estimates

Zee Entertainment’s Q1 profit jumps 62.5 percent to Rs 530 crore.

A man looks at new LCD televisions at a retail showroom. (Photographer: Namas Bhojani/Bloomberg)
A man looks at new LCD televisions at a retail showroom. (Photographer: Namas Bhojani/Bloomberg)

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. reported a bigger-than-expected quarterly profit on the back of growth in domestic broadcast and digital businesses.

Net profit jumped 62.5 percent year-on-year to Rs 530 crore in the quarter ended June, according to its exchange filing. That beat the Rs 388-crore consensus estimate of analysts tracked by Bloomberg.

“We delivered another quarter of strong performance despite the operational challenges faced by the industry due to the implementation of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s tariff order,” Punit Goenka, managing director and chief executive officer of Zee, said in a statement accompanying the filing.

  • The Subhash Chandra-led media company generated revenue of Rs 2,008 crore, a 13.3 percent increase over a year ago. Analysts expected Rs 1,940 crore.
  • Operating profit rose 33.6 percent to Rs 727 crore, while operating margin expanded 560 basis points to 36.2 percent.
  • The company’s advertising revenue for the quarter stood at Rs 1,187 crore, a growth of 3.6 percent. Its subscription revenue rose 36.6 percent to Rs 709 crore.

Zee Entertainment’s controlling stakeholder, Essel Group, is said to be in talks to selling half its stake to a strategic partner to pare debt, and expects binding bids by this month. In June, lenders to Essel Group sold Rs 600 crore worth of Zee Entertainment’s shares pledged as a collateral by the promoters in April and May.

Shares of the media company closed 1.4 percent lower before the earnings announcement today.