Hathway revenue and operating profit up in third quarter

Hathway revenue and operating profit up in third quarter

BENGALURU: Indian multi system operator (MSO) Hathway Cable and Datacom Limited (Hathway) reported 25.5 per cent growth in Total Income from operations (TIO) and 46 percent growth in operating profits (EBIDTA) for the quarter ended 31 December 2016 (Q3-17, current quarter). The company reported TIO of Rs 337.6 crore in Q3-17 as compared to Rs 281.2 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

The company’s EBDITA (earnings before depreciation, interest, taxes and amortisation or operating profit) including other income in the current quarter was Rs 66.6 crore (20 percent EBIDTA margin) and was Rs 45.4 crore (16 percent EBIDTA margin) in Q3-16. The company’s loss as per IND-AS in the current quarter increased to Rs 44.4 crore from a loss of Rs 41.2 crore in Q3-16.

Hathway reported high growth in Cable subscription revenue, Activation fees and Broadband revenue, while placement revenue declined. The company’s broadband segment has been performing very well, as a matter of fact, among the national level MSOs’ Hathway has the highest subscription and revenue numbers among all of them. Like in the immediate trailing quarter, within Hathway, in Q3-17, Broadband subscription had the highest contribution to revenue, even more than Cable TV subscription revenue

Hathway’s broadband subscriber base increased by 0.4 lakh in Q3-17 to 8.6 lakh from 8.2 lakh in the immediate trailing quarter. Consolidated broadband revenue in the current quarter as per IND AS increased 62 percent to Rs 127.8 crore from Rs 78.7 crore in the previous year. Consolidated Broadband ARPU in Q3-17 was Rs 654 as compared to Rs 631 in Q3-16 and Rs 643 in the immediate trailing quarter.

Reported CATV subscription revenue as per IND AS in the current quarter increased 17 percent to Rs 114.1 crore from Rs 97.7crore in Q3-16 Hathway says that it has deployed 4 lakh STBs at a consolidated level. Standalone CATV ARPU in DAS Phase I was Rs 105, in Phase II areas was Rs 95. ARPU from phase III areas was Rs 45.

Placement revenue as per IND AS in the current quarter declined 14 percent to Rs 70.4 crore from Rs 82.2 crore in Q3-16.

Activation revenue as per IND AS increased 49 percent y-o-y in Q3-17 to Rs 21 crore from Rs 115 crore in Q3-16.

Other revenue as per IND AS declined 43 percent in Q3-17 to Rs 4.3 crore from Rs 7.6 in Q3-16.

Hathway’s Standalone Total Expenditure (without depreciation and amortization) in Q3-17 increased 14 percent to Rs 27.52 crore from Rs 239.4 crore in the previous year.

Standalone Pay channel cost in the current quarter increased 10 percent to Rs 104.3 crore from Rs 94.5 crore in Q3-16. Standalone Employee Benefit expense in Q3-17 increased 19 percent y-o-y to Rs 23.3 crore from Rs 19.6 crore.

Note: The unit of currency in this report is the Indian rupee - Rs (also conventionally represented by INR). The Indian numbering system or the Vedic numbering system has been used to denote money values. The basic conversion to the international norm would be:
(a) 100,00,000 = 100 lakh = 10,000,000 = 10 million = 1 crore.
(b) 10,000 lakh = 100 crore = 1 arab = 1 billion.