BENGALURU/MUMBAI: Hinduja Ventures Limited (HVL) reported more than doubling (up 129 percent) of its revenue for the quarter ended June 30, 2016 (Q1-17, current quarter) vis-à-vis revenue for the corresponding year ago quarter.

HVL revenue for Q1-17 was Rs 60.95 crore, while it was Rs 26.63 crore for the corresponding period previous year.
However, quarter-over-quarter (q-o-q), revenue for the current quarter declined 35 percent from Rs 93.75 crore in Q4-16. The company attributes the increase in revenue to sale of setup boxes/ broking income/ income from trading of securities.

The company reported a year-over-year (y-o-y) growth in profit of 1.3 percent for the current quarter at Rs 24.21 crore as compared to Rs 23.90 crore and a 70.8 percent q-o-q growth as compared to Rs 14.18 crore.

HVL operates across three segments of media and communication, real estate, and investment and treasury. HVL is the holding company of integrated media companies IndusInd Media and Communications Limited (IMCL) and Grant Investrade Limited (GIL), which has launched the headend-in-the-sky (HITS) digital platform under brand name NXT DIGITAL.

HVL’s media and communications segment

Revenue from its media and communications segment declined q-o-q to less than a fourth (down 76.6 percent). HVL reported revenue of Rs 14.40 crore in Q1-17 and Rs 61.69 crore in Q4-16. The segment reported an operating loss of Rs 5.61 crore in the current quarter as compared to an operating loss of Rs 0.37 crore in Q1-16 and an operating profit of Rs 2.71 crore in Q4-16. For the year ended March 31, 2016 (FY-16), the segment reported an operating profit of Rs 10.09 crore.

HVL to invest Rs 271 crore for stake in IMCL

HVL proposes to purchase 43,03,000 equity shares of Rs 10 each for a premium of Rs 456 per share of its subsidiary IMCL.
This stake purchase, which constitutes 5.82 percent of IMCL’s paid up equity capital, will cost HVL Rs 200.52 crore. HVL also proposes to buy 7,03,60,0000 IMCL preference shares of Rs 10 each at par from its wholly owned subsidiary shares of GIL. The IMCL stake purchase from GIL constitutes 26.02 percent of paid up preference capital of IMCL and will cost HVL Rs 70.36 crore.

GIL to de-merge HITS to IMCL

GIL will de-merge its HITS business undertaking to IMCL, the HVL board has decided. The scheme is subject to consent(s), approval(s) permission(s) of statutory authorities(s) if any, including, in particular, the approval from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB), Government of India for transfer and vesting of HITS License held by GIL in favour of IMCL.

HVL says that India is yet to witness a genuine and significant revolution in the digital delivery in true sense, especially in tier 3 and 4 cities and rural hinterland.

The digitalization with many upcoming value added services of over 160 million (16 crore) TV homes is still far from over. It is envisaged that the combined strength of fibre based digital cable delivery and the satellite based digital signals for cable industry will enhance and create a new paradigm in the digital content delivery platform in terms of reach, value for money, state of the art technology, quality of services and significant value added digital services.

The company also feels that this will further enhance shareholders value by consolidating the digital media distribution businesses and will help to rationalize the group structure by optimizing the resources and integrating operational synergies both in revenue and costs.

The combined entity will also be able to venture and grow in the newer areas and many digital technology-linked value-added services that would be relevant for this business and same set of customers.
According to HVL, its broadband business has also been restructured for a direct focus and is planned for a manifold technology-based growth.

The synergy will be able to consolidate HVL’s media investments and would  enhance and maximize the shareholders value, avers the company.

GIL’s (HITS business) merger into IMCL will be a unique first in the country in digital cable and has a long term positive financial implication by increasing competitive strength, technology synergies, customer service efficiency and high productivity with a genuine all-India reach. HVL says adding that similar models in developed countries have witnessed a prime leadership position in mid to long term.

The company states that this arrangement will also strengthen HVL’s investment in media business, which will, in turn, unlock the value of HVL’s shareholders.

Note: (1) The unit of currency in this report is 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.

(2) The numbers in this report are standalone unless stated otherwise

(3)  1 USD= INR 67