ZEEL Q4 net grows 6-fold to Rs 1,514 crore, Ten Sports sale helps

New Delhi: Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) on Wednesday reported an over six-fold jump in its consolidated net profit at Rs 1,514 crore for the fourth quarter to March, aided by the sale of its sports business.

It had registered a net profit of Rs 226.52 crore in January-March a year ago, ZEEL said in a filing with the BSE.

Total income during the quarter under review was at Rs 1,582.89 crore, up 1.50 per cent, as against Rs 1,559.38 crore a year earlier.

"PAT for the quarter was Rs 1,514.22 crore, which includes exceptional gain of Rs 1,223.4 crore on account of sale of sports business," the company said.

Its total expenses stood at Rs 1,043.86 crore, down 0.42 per cent from the earlier Rs 1,048.31 crore.

"Our domestic advertising revenue grew by 8.1 per cent despite the impact of demonetisation. After a couple of quarters of weakness, advertising growth appears to be back on track," said ZEEL MD and CEO Punit Goenka.

ZEEL earned Rs 846.91 crore as total revenue from advertising during the quarter in question, which was flat as against Rs 847.22 crore of the same quarter last year.

"Advertising revenue of our international business was impacted by country-specific issues during the quarter and the base quarter revenue was aided by telecast of popular cricket events in Pakistan," the company said.

Its subscription revenue came in at Rs 557.95 crore, down 6.13 per cent, compared to Rs 594.44 crore in the year-ago period.

"Domestic and international subscription revenues for the quarter declined by 2.8 per cent and 18.7 per cent yoy, respectively, largely due to catch-up revenues in the fourth quarter of 2015-16. In addition, consolidation of only two months of sports business impacted subscription revenue during Q4 2016-17," it said.

For the year to March 2017, ZEEL's consolidated net profit jumped over two folds to Rs 2,220.46 crore as against a net profit of Rs 823.73 crore in the previous fiscal.

Its total income for 2016-17 rose 10.82 per cent to Rs 6,658.17 crore as against Rs 6,007.67 crore a year ago.

Meanwhile, in a separate filing, ZEEL informed the BSE that its board in a meeting held today recommended payment of 250 per cent dividend, that is Rs 2.50 per share for 2016-17.

The stock of ZEEL today settled at Rs 516.05 on the BSE, up 3.98 per cent.