| The company, however, recorded a growth in revenue to Rs 43.02 crore in the second quarter of 2005 as compared to Rs 36.41 crore in the same period last year. |
| The company attributed the fall in profits to the Rs 7.45 crore payment it has to make towards the stock options payment. The stock option of 40.57 lakh shares are to be amortised over a period of four years. The company also said that its operational expenses have gone up on account of higher salary payments. "Expenses have also seen a jump on account of the launch of the business channel," the company said in a statement. According to the company statement, it expects revenue growth to accelerate and cost increase to slow down substantially. |
| "The first half of this financial year is a part of our organisation building process and involved some on-time cost adjustments. We believe the worst in expense increases is over. We foresee both salary cost increase and many other cost increases coming down substantially next year," the statement pointed out. |
| The company also expects the revenue in the second half to grow by at least 30 to 35 per cent. "Anticipating competition in the English news space, our business expectations have been focused on ensuring that the year is backlogged to ensure good revenues in the third and fourth quarter," the statement said. |
| The statement also said that the company is looking at several new growth opportunities. It has recently concluded a deaf with Astro Broadcasting to provide content for news channels to be launched in Malaysia and Indonesia. |
| "This has been a zero cost deal for the company. All costs will be reimbursed and the company will get a 20 per cent stake in the channels," the statement added. |
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