Media company Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) today said its consolidated net profit stood at Rs 191.83 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2011.
The numbers include the consolidated financial data of Taj TV, the company said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.
Post the merger of ETC Networks with ZEEL, the entire education business undertaking of ZEEL was demerged into a new listed company, Zee Learn, and hence the numbers are not comparable, the filing said.
It had a consolidated net profit of Rs 128.8 crore during the same period last fiscal.
Consolidated revenue stood at Rs 797.97 crore during the quarter under review compared with Rs 649.29 crore in the corresponding period previous fiscal.
For the year ended March 31, 2011, the consolidated net profit stood at Rs 623.69 crore compared with Rs 616.56 crore in the previous fiscal, the filing said.
The consolidated revenue stood at Rs 3,011.41 crore (Rs 2,199.78 crore).
“In a year which recorded a resurgence of advertising revenues on television, we have yet again outperformed the industry,” the ZEEL Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Mr Punit Goenka said in the filing.
“We ended FY11 on a good note, gaining viewership share across several genres, combined with improved revenue share, better operating margin and increased cash flow,” he added.
Advertising revenues of the company stood at Rs 479.7 crore, while subscription revenues were Rs 310.7 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2011, the filing said.
Subscription revenue from the domestic DTH stood at Rs 98.4 crore during the quarter, an increase of 44.1 per cent, it said.
“With our subscription revenues growing at a healthy pace, our overall revenues have recorded a 23 per cent growth over the fourth quarter of last year. For FY11, our revenues grew 37 per cent, despite increased losses in the sports business,” Mr Goenka said.
During the fourth quarter, the company’s sports business stood at Rs 142.4 crore, while the operating losses were Rs 15.2 crore.
“I am happy to report that sports losses were contained to Rs 15.2 crore during the fourth quarter, in line with our forecast earlier. We do expect losses to continue in the sports business for some more time to come,” he said.
Meanwhile, the company shareholders have approved the buyback of equity shares through open market operations, at a price of not more than Rs 126 per share.
Also, the scrip was trading at Rs 133.90 on the BSE in the late afternoon trade, up 7.42 per cent from its previous close.