Mumbai, Jan 24: Zee Telefilms has reported a 54 per cent jump in its net profit to Rs 24.86 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 1999, from Rs 16.11 crore in the year-ago period. Total income went up 41 per cent to Rs 90.29 crore compared with Rs 63.81 crore. The board has also allotted 80 lakh equity share warrants to Goldman Sachs Investments India. The warrants are convertible into 80 lakh equity shares into Re 1 each within three months from the allotment date at an exercise price of Rs 1,000 per share (face value Re 1 and premium Rs 999 per share).The board on Monday also announced the allotment of 16127412 equity shares of Re 1 each fully paid up to Asia Production Ltd., Mauritius, News Television Ltd, Mauritius, Graphics Holding, Mauritius, News TV India, Livewire Programmes and Trading Company, India, for acquiring 50 per cent in Winterheat Company (which owned 100 per cent equity shares in Asia Today Ltd), SitiCable Network and Programme Asia Trading Company. Zee had agreed to pay NewsCorp group of companies $296.51 million for acquiring its stake in the three joint venture companies.
Sales and services rose 40 per cent to Rs 66.26 crore from Rs 47.36 crore in the previous third quarter. Commission income increased 44 per cent to Rs 21.20 crore from Rs 14.69 crore.
Gross ad bookings on the Zee Network channels rose to Rs 166.80 crore, up from Rs 113.99 crore.
The operating margin has improved from Rs 36.08 crore to Rs 36.27 crore while gross margin has gone up from Rs 37.85 crore to Rs 38.27 crore. The net margin for the period has increased from Rs 25.25 crore to Rs 27.53 crore.
The company's share capital now stands at 388377600 shares of Re 1 each. During the third quarter, the equity shares of the company having nominal face value of Rs 10 were sub-divided into shares having a face value of Re 1.
During the nine-month period ended December 1999, the company's total income increased 30 per cent to Rs 219 crore, while gross profit jumped 38 per cent to Rs 82 crore. Net profitimproved 41 per cent to Rs 62 crore.
Commenting on its Internet operations, the company said that within less than one month of the launch of Zeenext, the domain had more than 70,000 registered users.
Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.