Mumbai: Videocon d2h Limited announced its financial results for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2015.
Videocon d2h achieved strong subscription revenue and revenue from operations growth of 38.3% and 32.5%, respectively, year on year to INR 20.58 billion in fiscal 2015 as compared to INR 14.87 billion in Fiscal 2014 and INR 23.38 billion in Fiscal 2015 as compared to INR 17.64 billion in Fiscal 2014, primarily due to increased net subscribers and ARPU growth.
The Company achieved Adjusted EBITDA of INR 6.09 billion for Fiscal 2015 against INR 3.92 billion for Fiscal 2014, a growth of 55.3%. This Adjusted EBITDA is before accounting for INR 135.17 million in one off security issue expenses and ESOP impact in Q4 of Fiscal 2015.
Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded 390 basis points to 26.1%, despite increase in content costs as a percentage of revenue in the second half of the fiscal year as the Company began operating under new content agreements. These new agreements provide predictability on content costs over the next 3-4 years, with better operating leverage and improved margins as subscriber base and ARPU and revenue increase over time.
Net loss for the year came in at INR 2.73 billion, a 14.7% improvement over the prior year. Videocon d2h was able to push through an inflation linked APRU increase in February 2015. As a result, Q4 Fiscal 2015 ARPU was INR 202, 11.7% increase over Fiscal 2014.
Videocon d2h continues to be the fastest growing Pay TV operator in India, with roughly 20% of the DTH net subscriber market share as on March 2015 up from nine percent four years ago. Last year the Company continued to lead the market in gross subscriber additions as well as incremental net subscribers for the fourth consecutive year. The Company is also seeing a pick-up in its High-definition (“HD”) subscriber base.
Commenting on the result Saurabh Dhoot, Executive Chairman said “We are pleased to announce that we successfully listed American Depositary Shares on NASDAQ in April, becoming the most valued Indian company to be listed on the NASDAQ. We are happy to share our results for fiscal 2015. We maintained our market leadership in subscriber growth and reported key financial metrics ahead of the guidance provided during the listing process. We believe, with our strong balance sheet and continued momentum, we are well-positioned for the future.”
Speaking on the growth outlook for the DTH sector, Mr. Anil Khera, CEO of Videocon d2h, said “The Pay TV segment in India is positioned for extraordinary growth over the next few years with millions of new TV homes being created on account of strong economic outlook in India as well as the Government of India’s initiative to roll out its digitalization mandate across the country. We believe that 90-100 million homes will be making the switch to digital platforms which will be available to the DTH and digital cable operators”.
“We are well positioned to benefit from this and we believe we will take the largest share of this opportunity, as we have in the past. With strong economic growth outlook for India, overall media sector is expected to grow in the years to come. We believe, this will help grow ARPU, TV penetration and increase HD uptake leading to stronger revenue growth for Pay TV in general and Videocon d2h in particular.” added Anil.
