Punit Goenka, the managing director and CEO of Zee Entertainment, on the company's Q4FY19 outlook and the impending stake sale.

On the advertising front, Goenka said: “In our verticals, we have seen significant growth across the portfolio but if I was to highlight, it came largely on the back of the movie cluster as well as the regional portfolio and within the regional portfolio, it is driven very much evenly between Marathi, Bengali, Kannada and Tamil.”

Speaking about ZEE5’s performance, he said: “We have seen significant growth in both advertising as well as subscription.”

On the impending stake sale, Goenka said: “I have two term sheets already with me for the potential stake sale and given where we are in those negotiations, I can confidently tell you that despite paying back all the loan against share lenders, the promoters will still be left with a stake in the company.”

When asked about other financial assets, which have risen five times from Rs 180 crore to Rs 1,000 crore, he said, “These are towards future purchases of content that we have given out on the back of ZEE5 investments as well as the impending movie libraries that we have acquired for the future channels to be launched along with renewal of libraries for the existing channels.”

He added: “We have not given any loan to any group company. These are basically films that are being put together in the next two years. These are deposits to three production houses who will have output deals with us over the next 2-3 years."

On the timeline of the stake sale, he said, “By end of June or early July we will be concluding the deal with one of the parties and coming out with an official announcement.”

Key highlights:

- Advertising spends grew across portfolio in Q4

- Movie cluster and regional content drove advertising revenue for Q4

- Along with advertisement revenue growth, there has been a major ZEE5 subscription growth

- Promoters will be left with a stake in the company even after stake sale

- No fresh loans given to group company

- Stake sale deal to conclude by the end of June or early July

- Have not received a fresh bid from any new investor

First Published:May 28, 2019 10:40 AM IST