Eros International Media September quarter net jumps 42 per cent

Eros International Media on Wednesday reported a 42.19 per cent increase in net profit for the quarter ended September 30 at Rs 36.97 crore against Rs 26 crore in year-ago period, registering a rise of 42.19 per cent.

Its total income for the quarter, however, declined by 12.8 per cent to Rs 201.47 crore against Rs 231 crore in the corresponding period previous fiscal year.

Revenues during April-September stood at Rs 395.68 crore against Rs 490.3 crore a year-ago, registering a decline of 19.29 per cent.

Its net profit for the six months period grew 15.34 per cent to Rs 66.31 crore from Rs 57.49 crore in the corresponding period of previous fiscal.

"Eros International has given a strong financial and operational performance in the first half of the fiscal, especially given that we had no high budget releases in H1FY14 compared to two high budget releases a year-ago," Eros International Media managing director Sunil Lulla said in a statement.

Eros International released 26 films during H1 FY14, which included 11 Hindi and 15 Tamil and other regional languages as against 42 films in first half of 2012-13.

"The decline in total income during the six months period was mainly due to the change in mix and a number of new releases as compared to the same period last year," he said.

The company's performance was underpinned by the all-round success of movies like 'Grand Masti', 'Raanjhanaa', 'Go Goa Gone', and 'Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani', all of which have been monetised over multiple distribution channels, Mr Lulla said.

During the quarter, Eros Now, the company's online entertainment portal, added a host of Bollywood titles acquired from UTV and Viacom to its movie subscription service.

"Eros International continues to invest in high profile films during the year, which will be released in second half of the current financial year. Simultaneously, the company is successfully executing the strategy of diversifying its movie portfolio with a healthy mix of modest budget-high concept films and high profile - big star cast films," he added.

Mr Lulla also mentioned that collaboration with HBO Asia gives it a huge opportunity within the premium television market in the country.

"We are looking forward to the high profile releases in the remainder of the fiscal year such as 'Ram- Leela, 'R..Rajkumar', 'Kochadaiyaan', 'Happy Ending' and a number of smaller budget high concept movies that are slated to be released in the fiscal under review."