MUMBAI: News broadcaster New Delhi Television Ltd (NDTV)continues on the path to recovery. Its fourth quarter results for 2013 (up to 31 March) surprised many. The company‘s revenues are up and it appears to have got some amount of control on its bottomline which was getting battered a while ago.
Consolidated revenues at Rs 186.56 crore as compared to Rs 137.96 crore in the corresponding previous quarter are clearly looking good - a jump of 43 per cent. On a consolidated level its operating profit has shot up to Rs 42 crore for the quarter ended 31 March 2013 Rs 8.35 crore in the corresponding quarter the year before. Net profit was at Rs 27.81 crore as against a loss of Rs 41.33 crore.
The consolidated expenses were up 13.16 per cent in the last quarter to Rs 160.90 crore as compared to Rs 142.19 crore in the previous corresponding period. Its expenses were at Rs 120.71 crore in the immediate preceding quarter to 31 December 2012. Contributing to the increase in expenses was a surge in production costs (Rs 40.12 crore in Q4FY2013 vs Rs 25.43 crore in Q3 FY2013 vs 29.90 in Q4FY 2012), employee costs (Rs 41.37 crore in Q4FY2013 vs Rs 38.35 crore in Q3 FY2013 vs Rs 37.20 crore in Q4FY 2012) and marketing distribution and promotional expenses (Rs 42.63 crore in Q4FY2013 vs Rs 22.73 crore in Q3 FY2013 vs Rs 35.65 crore in Q4FY 2012).
Says NDTV Group CEO & executive director Vikram Chandra said, "The main reason for the increase in production costs and marketing costs is that we held some really big events like Support your School and Toyota University Cricket Championship. Correspondingly if you see, our revenues for the last quarter have also shot up and the events are one of the main reasons."
On a consolidated basis the group reported revenues of Rs 526.81 crore in the year ended 31 March 2013 as against Rs 483.37 crore in the previous financial year. The NDTV group reported a net profit of Rs 1.91 crore as against a loss of Rs 87.38 crore in the previous year.
The company‘s share hit an intra-day high of Rs 77.30 before settling down to Rs 75.15 from its opening of Rs 72.60.
