MUMBAI: Hathway Cable and Datacom has narrowed its standalone net loss for the three-month period ended 30 March 2012 to Rs 67.94 million as against Rs 175.48 million a year ago. The multi-system-operator (MSO) had posted a net loss of Rs 182.78 million in the trailing quarter.
The MSO‘s loss from operations (before other Income, finance cost and exceptional items) during the quarter under review also came down to Rs 38.48 million, from Rs 70.57 million. In the trailing quarter, the loss was at Rs 49.28 million.
Net sales from operations in the fourth quarter jumped 16.33 per cent to Rs 1.34 billion as against Rs 1.15 billion in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal. In the third quarter of the fiscal, the company’s net sales stood at Rs 1.26 billion.
Hathway‘s total expenses during the quarter went up marginally (6.7 per cent) to Rs 1.39 billion, from Rs 1.31 billion. In the trailing quarter, the expenses stood at Rs 1.33 billion.
The pay channel cost for the quarter rose to Rs 387.93 million from Rs 342.53 million, while employee expense fell to Rs 76.82 million from 107.67 million a year ago. In the preceding quarter, the pay channel cost was Rs 355.13 million.
Full Fiscal performance
For the fiscal ended 31 March, the company‘s net sales increased to Rs 5.08 billion, from Rs 4.67 billion a year ago.
The company‘s net loss for the fiscal widened to Rs 501.92 million, from Rs 403.12 million.
Expenses rose to Rs 5.34 million as against Rs 4.81 billion in FY‘11.
The company said that it has utilised a total of Rs 4.06 billion from the IPO proceeds of Rs 4.8 billion as of 31 March 2012.
It has invested Rs 2.12 billion towards development of digital capital expenditure, services, set top boxes, broadband infrastructure, and capital expenditure, while Rs 1.89 billion is deployed towards repayment of loans and Rs 123.34 million for customer acquisition.
The company said that it has placed orders for adequate number of digital STBs to be seeded in its key markets for the first Phase of digitisation. “Hathway benefits as it is present in three of the four cities which form part of Phase 1 roll out i.e. Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata, either directly or through its JV partners,” the MSO said.
Hathway also witnessed the full fledged launch of its HD services with a bouquet of 20 channels during the quarter. The company set up one more digital head-end to serve the North / North West Delhi areas. Hathway has also launched its music channel “Hathway Music” in Hyderabad.
“The company has cumulatively achieved a landmark of over two million STBs in its universe and is consequently well placed to gain from Phases 1 and 2 of the DAS roll-out,” the company said.