BENGALURU: IndusInd Media & Communications Limited's (IMCL) holding company Hinduja Ventures Limited (HVL) reported profit of Rs 19.68 crore about 0.8 per cent lower as compared to Rs 19.84 crore and five per cent higher than the Rs 18.74 crore profit for Q1-2014.
Capital employed (segment assets minus segment liabilities) for media and communications segment more than tripled (3.08 times) to Rs 295.31 crore in Q2-2014 as compared to the Rs 95.94 crore for Q2-2013 and 3.03 times the Rs 97.44 crore for the immediate trailing quarter Q1-2014.
For the current quarter, HVL reported a total income of Rs 26.18 crore, 6.2 per cent more than the Rs 24.65 crore for Q2-2013 but 1.7 per cent lower than the Rs 26.62 crore for Q1-2014.
However, HVL reported a loss of Rs (-2.60) crore from its media and communications segment for Q2-2014 as compared to small profit of Rs 0.5717 crore for the corresponding quarter of last year and a loss of Rs (-4.40) crore for the immediate trailing quarter. Revenue from this segment in HVL’s financials for Q2-2014 fell by 25.3 per cent to Rs 1.09crore as compared to the Rs 1.46 crore for Q2-2013. For Q1-2014, revenue from media and communications was also Rs 1.09 crore.
HVL claims that IMCL has an estimated subscriber base of 0.85 crore subscribers in 36 major cities in the country and that IMCL has planned new services for the digital cable foray, apart from the broadband services like HD services, hybrid STBs for cable and internet, and value added services for digital cable. It says that the Digital Addressable System (‘DAS’) that was introduced by the government on 1 November 2012 in phases - offers a unique opportunity to IMCL to make all its subscribers addressable and monetise its subscription revenues manifold.
Three other segments besides media and communications contribute to HVL’s revenue - real estate; investments and treasury; and others. While all the other segments reported small loss, investments and treasury reported a profit of Rs 24.15 crore for Q2-2014 as compared to the Rs 22.35 crore for Q2-2013 and the Rs 24.43 crore for Q1-2014.
