Media and entertainment firm Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) that is in advanced stages of its stake sale process has said that it will decide between two binding offers in the coming days.
“We already have one binding offer on table at the moment and there is another one coming up. The family will evaluate and see how the transaction will impact our strengths to take a call soon,” ZEEL managing director and chief executive officer Punit Goenka said over a conference call with analysts on Tuesday. Goenka had previously said there will be a final announcement on the stake sale in place by the end of July.
ZEEL had announced in November last year that its promoters, led by Subhash Chandra, planned to sell up to 50% of their equity stake in the company to a strategic partner. According to media reports, US cable major Comcast, is looking to team up with PE fund Blackstone and James Murdoch’s family office Lupa Systems to bid for ZEEL.
For the first quarter of FY20, ZEEL reported consolidated revenue of Rs20,081 million. Advertising revenue for the quarter was Rs11,867 million, a growth of 3.6% year-on-year. Domestic advertising revenue grew by 4.2% year-on-year to Rs11,322 million. International advertising revenue for the quarter was Rs545 million. Subscription revenue for the quarter was Rs7,088 million, a growth of 36.7% year-on-year. Domestic subscription revenue grew by 46.7% over the same period to Rs6,240 million. International subscription revenue was Rs848 million.
EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) for the quarter grew by 16.6% to Rs6,598 million and EBITDA margin stood at 32.9%.
“We delivered another quarter of strong performance despite the operational challenges faced by the industry due to the implementation of Trai tariff order. We have witnessed a strong uptake of our channels across markets which is reflected in the 47% growth of our domestic subscription revenues. We are confident that the new tariff regime is going to be beneficial for all the stakeholders and will greatly improve the consumer experience,” Goenka said in a statement.
Monthly active users and daily active users for ZEE5, the streaming service owned by ZEEL, globally stood at 76.4 million and 6.6 million, respectively, in the month of June. ZEE5 users spent an average of 33 minutes per day on the platform, the company said.
Source: Mint