Hathway posts net loss of Rs 36.8 crore in Q3FY14

Margins affected by nearly 95% increase in pay channel cost

Cable and broadband service provider Hathway Cable and Datacom Ltd posted loss of Rs 36.8 crore for Q3 FY14 as compared to loss of Rs 7.4 crore in the corresponding quarter last fiscal. The EBITDA margin for the quarter came down from 23% in FY13 to 16% in FY14. Despite increase in revenue, margins were affected by nearly 95% increase in pay channel cost (Rs 42.9 crore in Q3 FY13 vs. Rs 83.7 in Q3 FY14).

 

Revenues for the quarter stood at Rs 234.78 crore ( as against Rs 152.9 in Q3 FY13) while EBITDA was Rs 36.7 crore. The company saw an upsurge in costs incurred due to dereciation ad amortization (up 95.46% from last year) and finance cost (up 96.67%).

 

By the end of Dec-13, Hathway along with its JV partners had deployed 7.7 Mn boxes. During the quarter the company has laid emphasis on collecting CRF’s from Phase II cities and on focusing for monetization of DAS areas. With this focus on collections we have witnessed continued traction in the pace of subscription collections into January 2014.

 

In a statement announcing the quarterly results, the company said welcomed "the TRAI’s recent notification on Content Aggregator given on 10th February 2014. We believe this is a positive step for the industry. This will benefit the customers and will help MSO’s introduce dynamic packaging."