Entertainment graphics major, Pentamedia Graphics Ltd today said it was not able to pay dividend to around 10 to 20 per cent of shareholders within the stipulated time period.

S Ramasamy, company secretary and general manager, corporate finance, said, "We have been able to pay dividend to 80 per cent of our shareholders and we hope to pay the remaining in the next couple of weeks. The delay is mainly due to non- availability of letter of credit from banks."

He said the whole process was complicated because of problems in master data provided by NSDL to Citibank, which was initially entrusted to pay the dividend. "The shareholders list provided by them (NSDL) showed that between 25 and 30 per cent of the company's shares were under transition. Hence, we decided not to go with the list and in the meantime Citibank decided to close the contract with us," he explained.

Thereafter, according to company officials, National Securities Depository Ltd (NSDL) along with HDFC Bank was entrusted with the task of paying dividend.

As per relevant act, companies need to post dividend warrants to all the members within a period of 42 days from the date of declaration and that all unclaimed/ unpaid dividend has to be transferred to unpaid dividend account of the company.

Apart from the above-mentioned problems, Pentamedia is also facing legal battle with the Bombay Stock Exchange with the latter filing a petition in the Madras High Court to vacate the stay granted on suspension of trading of Pentamedia scrip.

Q2 net at Rs 31 crore

Pentamedia Graphics has reported a net profit of Rs 31.06 crore on a turnover of Rs 183.69 crore for the second quarter ended September 2001.

The above figures include the financials of subsidiaries; hence, no comparable data is available. During the second quarter, the company (without including subsidiaries) has reported a decline of 49 per cent in net profit at Rs 13.05 crore from Rs 25.8 crore in the corresponding quarter of last fiscal. Turnover fell by 23 per cent to Rs 111.04 crore from Rs 144.95 crore in July- September 2001.

Pentamedia during the first half of the current financial year reported 17 per cent fall in net profit at Rs 54.8 crore from Rs 66.63 crore in corresponding period of last fiscal. However, turnover increased marginally by 3 per cent to touch Rs 272.24 crore from Rs 263.54 crore in April-September 2001.

The animation, Num TV and Multimedia products and services, businesses have contributed 59 per cent, 21 per cent and 20 per cent of the revenue, respectively.

The company, in a press release, stated that the digital assets of the company were written- off within the projected revenue period of the respective assets. This has resulted in an additional depreciation of Rs 9.37 crore.