Satyam posts 94% rise in profit

The company board, which has met here to take on record the financial results, has decided to fix the record date fro the stock split as August, 2000. The shareholders of the company had approved to split the existing fully paid share of Rs 10 each into 5 fully paid equity shares of Rs 2 each.

During the period under review, the company has shown Rs 170.12 crore as extra-ordinary income, which was realised through a sale of 3,47,200 equity shares of Satyam Infoway Ltd, a group company engaged in ISP business. As per the financial results declared, in the first quarter the company has incurred financial expenses of Rs 11.38 crore and provided depreciation of Rs 26.15 crore.

Satyam Infoway losses: Nasdaq-listed Satyam Infoway, a subsidiary of SCSL, has posted a net loss of Rs 17.8 crore, or Rs 8.02 per equity share, for the quarter ended June 30, 2000. Each share is represented by four American depositary shares. The company contained its loss before interest, depreciation, amortization and tax at Rs 11.9 crore.

The company has, however, posted four times higher revenues for the quarter. They rose to Rs 32.1 crore, against Rs 8.08 crore posted in the previous quarter.

The company’s Internet access business had more than 200,000 subscribersas on June 30, 2000 (61,860), growing 223 per cent. Satyam Infoway started the business in November 1998, and now offers the service in 44 locations, covering more than 220 cities.

The online portal business recorded 80 million page views in June, against six million page views in the same quarter the previous year. Advertisements are coming from Priceline.com. PeopleSoft, Citibank, Coca-Cola India, Compaq, McDowell, ICICI Direct, Templeton Asset Management and Zurich India, among others. The corporate service business continued to grow, and has approximately 550 customers.