BENGALURU: Siti Cable Network Limited (Siti Cable) reported 29.4 percent growth in total revenue (including other revenue) for the fiscal ended 31 March 2016 (FY-16, current fiscal). The company reported total revenue of Rs 1213 crore in FY-16 as compared to Rs 937 crore in the previous year. Operating profit (EBIDTA) in the current year increased to Rs 323 crore as compare to Rs 168.4 crore in FY-15.

Siti Cable has reported a Profitable Turnaround for the first time in it’s history. Neglecting the impact of minority interest, Siti Cables profit after tax in the current year was Rs 6.84 crore as compared to a loss (without factoring in minority interest) of Rs 101.88 crore in FY-15.The company’s loss in the current year declined to Rs 1.71 crore from a loss of Rs 109.10 crore in FY-15. Siti Cable reported Profit before Tax (PBT) at Rs 22 crores in FY16 as compared to a negative PBT of Rs 85.2 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.

Expenditure in the current year increased 15.8 percent to Rs 890 crore from Rs 768.6 crore in FY-15. Finance cost was up 14 percent in FY-16 at Rs 137.8 crore (11.4 percent of total revenue) as compared to Rs 120.9 crore (12.9 percent of total revenue) in FY-15.

FY-16 revenue breakup

DAS Phase III has been a boon for the television carriage industry. Siti Cable’s Activation revenue for FY-16 more than tripled (3.4 times) to Rs 213.5 crore (~ 18 percent of total revenue) from Rs 62.4 crore (~ 7 percent of total revenue).

Subscription revenue in FY-16 increased 5.6 percent to Rs 561.2 crore (~46 percent of total revenue) from Rs 531.3 crore (56.7 percent of total revenue) in FY-15.

Carriage revenue for FY-16 increased 3.3 percent to Rs 257.1 crore (21.2 percent of total revenue) as compared to Rs 249 crore (26.6 percent of total revenue) in FY-15.

Broadband revenue in the current year increased 80.8 percent to Rs 48.1 crore (4 percent of total revenue) from Rs 26.6 crore (2.8 percent of total revenue) in FY-15.

Subscription numbers

Siti Cable’s cable subscribers in FY-16 grew to 1.22 crore from 1.05 crore reported at the end of FY-15. The growth happened in Q3-16.

Digital subscribers in FY-16 increased to 79 lakh (64.8 percent of cable subscribers) as compared to 53.8 lakh in FY-15 (51.2 percent of cable subscribers). Digital subscribers in the quarter ended 31 March 2016 (Q4-16, current quarter) increased by 11 lakh to 79 lakh as compared to 68 lakh in Q3-16.

Broadband subscribers in FY-16 grew 93.3 percent to1.355 lakh from 0.701 lakh in FY-15. Broadband subscribers in Q3-16 were 1.07 lakh.

Let us look at the other numbers for Q4-16

Total revenue in Q4-16 increased 30.9 percent year-over-year (y-o-y) to Rs 364.8 crore as compared to Rs 278.7 crore, but declined 2.7 percent from Rs 374.8 crore in Q3-15.

Activation revenue in Q4-16 almost quadrupled (3.71 times) y-o-y at Rs 78.2 crore as compared to Rs 21.1 crore, but declined 25.5 percent (quarter-over-quarter) q-o-q from Rs 105 crore.

Subscription revenue in Q4-16 increased 3.9 percent y-o-y to Rs 147.9 crore from Rs 142.4 crore and increased 1.4 percent q-o-q from Rs 145.8 crore.

Carriage revenue in the current quarter declined 13.7 percent y-o-y to Rs 63.4 crore as compared to Rs 73.5 crore, but increased 4.8 percent q-o-q from Rs 60.5 crore.

Broadband revenue in Q4-16 more than doubled (2.01 times) y-o-y to Rs 15.9 crore from Rs 7.9 crore and increased 14.4 percent q-o-q from Rs 13.9 crore.

Company speak

Siti Cable executive director & CEO, SITI Cable V D Wadhwa said, “Our strategy of tighter control on cost lines and improving monetization has started yielding results and the company’s profitable turn-around, first time in 20 years, is a testament to that. We continue on our journey of being the fastest growing company in Cable and Broadband by expanding the breadth & width of our distribution. As a part of our strategy, we are working on gaining Industry leadership through organic and inorganic growth.

Our growth story was recognized not only by the promoters who increased their stake, but also by independent agencies like ICRA who upgraded the long term rating of SITI Cable to [ICRA]A- from [ICRA]BB+. Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) will also be including SITI Cable as constituent of their India Domestic Small Cap Index with effect from 31st May 2016. Having expanded in DAS Phase 3, our biggest challenge in FY17 will be monetization. We are well positioned to scale up our Broadband operations aggressively in new geographies in FY17.”