BENGALURU:  Eros International Media Limited (Eros) posted 12.8 per cent lower revenue for Q2-2014 at Rs 201.47 crore as compared to the Rs 231.05 crore for Q2-2013 and 3.7 per cent higher than the Rs 194.2 crore for Q1-2014. However, Eros’s PAT (after minority) for Q2-2014 at Rs 36.9 crore (PAT margin 18.4 per cent) was 41.8 per cent higher than the PAT of Rs 26.08 crore (PAT margin 11.4 per cent) in Q2-2013 and 26.2 per cent more than the Rs 29.3 crores (PAT margin 15.1 per cent) in Q1-2014.

Eros Managing Director Sunil Lulla said, “Eros has given strong financial and operational performance in the first half of the fiscal, especially, given that we have had no high budget releases in the first half of FY 2014 compared to two high budget releases in the first half of FY 2013. The company’s performance was underpinned by the all-round success of movies like Grand Masti, Raanjhaana, Go Goa Gone and our overseas release of Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani all of which have been monetised over multiple distribution channels.”

The company says that its performance during HY1-14 was also backed by other overseas releases like Furkey, Lootera, Shootout at Wadala, Ek thi Dhayan, Phata Poster Nikla Hero and within the country through regional films such as Rangeelay (Punjabi) and Tamil films. Also, television revenues for Q2-2014 were mainly underpinned by a combination of catalogue monetisation as well as delivering new films under the previously announced licensing agreement with Viacom 18.

Let us look at the other HY1-2014 and Q1-2014 figures posted by Eros:

Overall for HY1-2014, PAT at Rs 66.31 crore was 15.3 per cent higher than the Rs 57.49 crore Eros had reported for Q2-2013, despite releasing only 26 films (11 Hindi and 15 Tamil) in HY1-2014. In Q1-2014, Eros had 12 releases, in Q2-2014, IT HAD 14. In HY1-2013, Eros had had 42 releases.

Total Expense for Q2-2014 at Rs 103.8 crore was 42.2 per cent lower than the Rs 179.51 crore for Q2-2013 and 4.2 per cent lower than the Rs 108.31 crore in Q1-2014. Direct cost for Q2-2014 at Rs 139.36 crore was 17.8 per cent lower than the Rs 169.07 crore for Q2-2013, but 6.1 per cent higher than the Rs 131.38 crore for Q1-2014.

Interest cost for Q2-2014 at Rs 6.2 crore was more than double (2.26 times) the Rs 2.74 crore for Q2-2013 and 34.5 per cent more than the Rs 4.61 crore in Q1-2014. Other expense for Q2-2014 at Rs 11.8 crore was 42.8 per cent lower than the Rs 20.63 crore for Q2-2013 and 23.6 per cent lower than the Rs 15.45 crore for Q1-2014.

EBIT for Q2-2014 at Rs 50.31 crore was 16.4 per cent higher than the Rs 42.35 crore for Q2-2013 and 9.1 per cent more than the Rs 46.1 crores for Q1-2014.

Said Lulla, “We remain excited about our collaboration with HBO Asia and the opportunity it presents among the premium television market within India. We are also looking forward to the high profile releases in the remainder of the fiscal year  such as Ram Leela, Kochadaiyaan, Happy Ending, and a number of smaller budget high concept movies that are slated to be released in the fiscal under review.”

Eros says that its collaboration with HBO Asia continues to receive an encouraging response after the launch of its two new advertisement free channels in February 2013 - HBO Defined and HBO Hits that are not only available on Dish and Airtel DTH platforms, but also on digital cable platforms such as Hathway and GTPL.

Further during Q2-2014, the company’s online entertainment portal Eros Now added a host of Bollywood titles acquired from UTV and Viacom to its movie subscription service.