Zee stock falls 32 pc after results

Said an analyst, “the fall started after the company’s results disappointed investors.” Its results in the last year have been boosted by an extra-ordinary income of Rs 188.95 crore. On a year-on-year basis, total income rose by about 110 per cent to Rs 486.01 crore, up from Rs 231.73 crore in the previous year. But the total income includes Rs 188.95 crore, garnered from the sale of a part of its film library to its subsidiary Asia Today (ATL).

Excluding this non-recurring income, the topline growth has faltered to about 13 per cent in the last quarter of the year. This is much lower compared to the growth of 36 per cent in the first three quarters. In fact, on a Q4 to Q4 basis, operating margin has fallen considerably from 38 per cent to about 28 per cent.

The recent turbulence in the local and overseas market has further upset its $ 1.5 billion ADR issue plan. The company has decided to drastically cut down the size of its proposed American depository receipts issue from $1.5 billion to $200 million.

Zee Telefilms is taking a `relook’ at American Depository Receipts (ADR) issue as a whole and it may even tap other options for funding its expansion plans, company chairman Subhash Chandra had said on Thursday. “We are not in any way forced to go for the ADR issue to fund our expansion plans. We can either raise debt or sell part of the stake in our subsidiaries to continue the programme,” Chandra said at a meeting of company’s analysts here.