The continuing legal dispute with Franchise Pictures over allegedly inflated budgets has led German rights trader Intertainment to increase depreciations, allowances and provisions by Euros 109.3m to Euros 142.4m for the last financial year.

Intertainment announced that its first hearing regarding the assets of Franchise Pictures had been held before a federal court in Los Angeles on April 29, but the court set November 19, 2002 as the start date for a trial on Intertainment's dispute with Franchise.

As a consequence of the extraordinary expenses, Intertainment posted a loss of Euros 86.8m for the 2001 financial year, compared to group net income of Euros 5.6m in 2000.

Group revenues amounted to Euros 31.1m last year, down from Euros 87.8m in 2000.

Intertainment's share price had slipped by almost 19% to Euros 1.34 by late afternoon trading today (April 30).