Lowe India is one of the few subsidiaries of Lowe Worldwide that is delivering some profits. It is an agency that likes to play it solo. Be it at award shows or otherwise.
R Balakrishnan (Balki) is the chairman & national creative director of Lowe India. The agency is considered an important hub for creative and strategic thinking for Lowe Worldwide. And it might want to add, a hub for making money as well.
Lintas India, the registered name for Lowe, closed FY07 with revenues of Rs 165 crore, a 12.2 per cent increase year-on-year. Profits were up marginally at Rs 31.4 crore.
The EPS – a whopping Rs 6,547 – and the company’s reserves and cash surplus stand at Rs 175 crore.
The agency attributes the profits largely to an increase in commission and fees earned and cost control.
In July last year, Lowe made news when it sold the remaining 51 per cent stake to Lowe Worldwide. Lintas Employees Welfare Trust transferred 20,750 equity shares of Rs 100 each to IPG Mauritius.
Some directors on the board such as P S Vaidya, M L Apte, Ranjit Bhavanani, Aspy Cooper, Chaitan Maniar and Humayun Dhanrajgir resigned due to change in the shareholding of the agency.
Prem Mehta, who was the chairman and managing director of the agency until May this year, took home a salary of nearly Rs 3.2 crore in 2007, while Shahrook Munsiff (finance director) took home around Rs 1.2 crore.
Lowe India paid nearly Rs 6 crore as dividend to Lowe Worldwide during FY07.
Lowe’s sister agency SSC&B Lintas, now rebranded as Pickle, closed FY07 with profits of nearly Rs 64 lakh, while Quadrant, in which Lintas India has a 51 per cent stake, registered a net profit of Rs 66 lakh in FY07.