Zee's Q1 net shows a marginal rise of 5%

Zee's Q1 net shows a marginal rise of 5%

Zee Telefilms

Zee Telefilms along with its subsidiaries has registered what could be its lowest Q1 net profit in the recent past. The company showed a rise of a meagre 5% in its net profit for the first quarter of the year 2000-2001. The consolidated net profit for the current quarter is Rs 32 crore as against the corresponding figure of Rs 30.5 crore for the same period of the last year.

Various reasons can be stated for this poor performance. To begin with, the unaudited results of the company reveal that a large amount has been written off for the total operating profit of 50 crore. Zee has hived off Rs 18.3 crore as "exceptional items". Of these exceptional items, Rs 9.8 crore has been written-off on account of the film library sold by ZTL to its subsidiary. It can be mentioned that a lot of controversy was generated when this sale was shown by ZTL as a profit in its books in the previous financial year. And according to analysts, it is likely that the remaining amount from the sale of the library might be written-off over a period of time, which in turn might mean that Zee might show lower net profits for the remaining quarters as well.

Also the company has accrued losses on account of its new interactive services like E-Connect and Zee Interactive Learning Systems. Zee has registered losses of 5.2 crore and 1.4 crore respectively on the two new subsidiaries.

Interestingly, the company has shown other income as Rs 10.9 crore. This is a five times increase from the previous years figure of Rs 2 crore. Had it not been for this income, the consolidated net profit would have been even lower.