Zee Entertainment zooms up

On the face of it, it looks like Zee Entertainment has posted a stellar performance for Q4FY17. Its consoldiated net profit has jumped up almost 7 times to Rs.1514 crore v/s Rs.226 crore in Q4FY16; that too, on an almost flat 0.4% rise in revenue at Rs.1528 crore. Digging a little further, you realise the net profit is inflated because of the exceptional gain of Rs 1223 crore on sale of sports business.

Thanks to the 5% drop in expenditure, EBITDA showed a 14% rise at Rs.469 crore. Other income saw a 46% jump but this was more or less nullified by the 51% rise in depreciation. Interest cost, which is substantial at Rs.112 crore, was down 16%.

The market is enthused with the performance and the stock is amongst the top gainers on the BSE currently, up over 4% at Rs.537, with a  2.5 times jump in volumes.