BENGALURU: Indian private FM player Entertainment Network (India) Limited (ENIL), which runs the Mirchi brand radio network in India,  reported 11.5 percent increase in total Income from operations (TIO) for the quarter ended 30 September 2016 (Q2-17, current quarter). The company reported consolidated revenue of Rs 129.65 crore for the current quarter as compared to Rs 116.27 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal. Quarter-on-quarter (q-o-q), revenue in Q2-17 also increased 17.1 percent from Rs 110.76 crore in Q1-17.

The company’s consolidated profit after tax (PAT) in Q2-17 declined by 70.3 per cent year-over-year (y-o-y) to Rs 8.05 crore (16.2 per cent margin) as compared to Rs 27.14 crore (23.3 percent margin) and declined 51.7 per cent q-o-q from Rs 16.66 crore (15 per cent margin).

Company Speak

Commenting on the results, ENIL managing director and chief executive officer, Prashant Panday said, “It’s been a busy quarter for us! We are in the midst of many exciting launches; of core brand Mirchi in cities like Chandigarh, Guwahati and Kochi and our second brand, Mirchi Love in Ahmedabad, Surat, Jaipur and Lucknow. We are offering new innovative content and recruiting existing and new listeners. We have stepped up marketing spends and early research indicates that we have made a strong start and in fact have become leaders in key markets. I am confident this will translate into a stronger business in the years ahead!”

Let us look at the other numbers reported by Radio Mirchi

ENIL’s consolidated Earnings before Interest, Depreciation, Taxes and Amortisation (EBIDTA, operating profit) for Q2-17 declined 39 percent y-o-y to Rs 23.13 crore (17.8 percent margin)  from Rs 37.94 crore (32.6 percent margin) and declined 21.4 percent q-o-q from Q1-17 at Rs 29.44 crore (26.6 percent margin).

ENIL total expense (TE) in Q2-17 increased 36.1 percent y-o-y to Rs 120.50 crore (92.9 percent of TIO) from Rs 88.57 crore (76.2 percent of TIO), and increased 34.2 percent q-o-q from Rs 89.79 crore (81.1 percent of TIO).

Programming and royalty expenses in the current quarter increased 42.9 percent y-o-y to Rs 6.03 crore (4.6 percent of TIO) from Rs 34.22 crore (3.6 percent of TIO and increased 14.6 percent q-o-q from Rs 5.26 crore (4.7 percent of TIO).

License fee in Q2-17 increased 6.1 percent y-o-y to Rs 8.31 crore (6.4 percent of TIO) from Rs 7.83 crore (6.7 percent of TIO) and increased 20.9 percent q-o-q from Rs 6.87 crore (6.2 percent of TIO).

Employee Benefit Expense (EBE) in Q2-17 at Rs 26.86 crore (20.7 percent of TIO) increased 21.7 percent y-o-y from Rs 22.08 crore (19.0 percent of TIO) and increased 6.6 percent q-o-q from Rs 25.20 crore (22.8 percent of TIO).

Marketing expense in Q2-17 at Rs 32.58 crore (25.1 percent of TIO) more than doubled (2.1 times) y-o-y and q-o-q from Rs 15.47 crore (13.3 percent of TIO) and from Rs 11.29 crore (11.1  percent of TIO) respectively.

Other expenses in Q2-17 at Rs 32.73 crore (25.3 percent of TIO) increased 13.9 percent y-o-y from Rs 28.73 crore (24.7 percent of TIO), and increased 14 percent q-o-q from Rs 28.71 crore (25.9 percent of TIO).

ENIL won 17 stations in Phase 3 auctions and has launched 4 new stations in the current quarter – at Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Surat and Jaipur. Earlier the company had launched Bengaluru, Guwahati, Hyderabad and Kochi stations. Bengaluru was Radio Mirchi’s first launch in the second frequencies network.

Note: The unit of currency in this report is the Indian rupee - Rs (also conventionally represented by INR). The Indian numbering system or the Vedic numbering system has been used to denote money values. The basic conversion to the international norm would be:

(a) 100,00,000 = 100 lakh = 10,000,000 = 10 million = 1 crore.

(b) 10,000 lakh = 100 crore = 1 arab = 1 billion.