ZEE TELE DRIVES INTO HIGH GEAR ON THE BOURSES

It was a gee-whiz week for Zee Telefilms as it jumped about Rs 400 to touch a high of Rs 2,175 before slipping to the Rs 2,000 mark at the weekend on the Bombay stock exchange. The Zee Telefilms share has been in the limelight for its rise from just Rs 100-odd a year and a few months ago to the near Rs 2,000 stock price currently.

The recent spurt came on the back of news that the Zee Telefilms management is to consider a proposal to split up the Rs 10 share into smaller units at its meeting on 28 July. The ratio being speculated about is one share being broken down into five shares of Rs 2 each. Others say it could be a straight split with each Rs 10 share fetching two shares of Rs 5 each.

The stock market was also reacting to the first quarter financial results that Zee TV is expected to announce on 28 July after the board meeting. Revenues are expected to climb 30% or so, continuing with its stellar performance notched up last year. Meanwhile, chairman Subhash Chandra announced last week that the Zee Network was being restructured into 13 different sub-units: free-to-air channels, entertainment, regional channels, English channels, distribution, technical infrastructure, sports, new media, international business, Zee Education, Asian Sky Shop, print media and radio, and global channels.

Each of these will be headed by a deputy CEO. While the company has promoted some executives in-house, while some have yet to be filled. Chandra believes that the company was becoming to unwieldy for just one manager to handle and hence each of the deputy CEOs is being empowered to take his own decisions. He is also believed to be in the final negotiation stage to take on R.K. Singh, a former DD professional, and the man who heads ESPN-Star Sports in India currently, for his sports channel. Zee TV is among the handful of companies which is making a bid for international cricket telecast rights from India from the Indian cricket board.