Sun TV’s Kalanithi Maran, wife Kavery highest-paid executives in FY20

Kalanithi Maran, who founded the company in 1993, is the Executive Chairman of Sun TV, while his wife is the ED. The couple took a salary of Rs 13.87 crore and Rs 73.63 crore as ex-gratia/ bonus each in 2019-20, aggregating to Rs 87.50 crore each. The owners had decided to keep their salaries at the current level three years ago, as per a media report.

 Sun TV’s standalone total income was Rs 3,653.35 cr in 2019-20 as against Rs 3,883.22 crore. Profit before tax was Rs 1,797.88 crore as against Rs 2,135.94 crore.

 Outbreak of the pandemic and consequent lockdown has impacted the regular business operations of the company.

 Speaking to investors recently, SL Narayanan, Group CFO, Sun TV Network said, “if you look at July and the fill levels in August are pretty encouraging. I think we can just say approximately, we are close to 75% of the pre-Covid levels in terms of the revenues. So if things stabilise and if the market really opens up, we are very confident of what we have committed to you, that I think in terms of overall decline, it could be restricted to 15-20 per cent.”

 In some of the markets, especially TN, the retail segment has not really opened up, which is a significant contributor to the revenue. FMCG continues to be a significant contributor in terms of the overall revenue factor at around 55 pc, the report said.

 Company’s net cash rose to Rs 3,000 cr in June from about Rs 2,800 cr in March.