Ortel Communication bottomline returns to black after IPO

Posts Rs 5.6 cr profit in FY15, compared withh Rs 13.8 cr loss a year ago

The bottomline of Ortel Communications Ltd, a leading cable television and high speed broadband service provider in eastern India, has returned to black with a net profit of Rs 5.6 crore in FY 15.

The company, which raised Rs 108 crore through a IPO last month, had posted Rs 13.8 crore loss in the previous fiscal.The company has posted better performance in other financial parameters as well. Its total income went up by 21 per cent to Rs 161.1 crore from Rs 132.6 crore and EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) grew by 44 per cent to Rs  5.97 crore from Rs 4.15 crore during the same period.

While its EBITDA margin stood at 37 per cent, EPS (earning per share) amounted to Rs 2.30.

Most of this improved performance has been contributed by the last quarter (Q4), during which the company’s total income rose by 30 per cent to Rs 45.4 crore from Rs 35 crore, EBITDA increased by 64 per cent to Rs 20.8 crore from Rs 12.7 crore and net profit jumped to Rs 5 crore from a loss of Rs 2.4 crore in the previous quarter of FY15.

As a result, the credit rating agency ICRA has upgraded the debt rating of Ortel to BB- from C+. This also saw rise in the share price of the company to reach a record high of Rs 189.70 in BSE on Monday before closing at Rs 179.40, which was 3.70 per cent higher than the previous close. Commenting on the performance, Bibhu Prasad Rath, president & CEO at Ortel Communications said, “the healthy performance of the company was due to growth in Revenue Generating Units (RGUs) in cable and broadband businesses and robust contribution from infrastructure leasing segment. With increasing penetration in our core and emerging markets along with the inorganic LCO (Local Cable Operator) buy out strategy, we believe we will achieve our immediate target of 1 million RGUs by the end of FY17”.

The company has its operation spread across Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal, though 90 per cent of its customer base is located in Odisha. It has lined various new service launches in terms of providing HD channels, high speed broadband packs and DOCSIS 3.0 roll out.