Ortel Communications Share price and Fundamental Analysis

Company History

Ortel Communications Ltd. is a regional cable television and high speed broadband services provider focused in the Indian states of Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh. The company has built a State-of-Art two-way communication network for Triple Play' services (video, data and voice capabilities) having HFC network (combination of optic fibre in the backbone and coaxial cable in the distribution network) with control over the Last Mile'. It pioneered the primary point cable business model in India by offering digital cable television, broadband and VAS services. It currently holds a dominant position in Odisha, with a fast-growing presence in five other markets,

Currently, business of the Company is broadly divided into (i) cable television services comprising of digital cable television services including other value added services such as HD services, NVoD, gaming and local content; (ii) broadband services; (iii) leasing of fibre infrastructure; and (iv) signal up linking services. It has legal Rights of Way' for laying network cable and capable of providing broadband at speed of up to 100 mbps through use of cable modem with DOCSIS 3.0 technology. Ortel is a pioneer in providing Convergence Communication Services in the Country.

Ortel services provided under the brand names 'Ortel Home Cable', 'Ortel Digital' and 'Ortel Broadband' are well known names in the regions in which Ortel operates.

During the year financial year ended 31 March 2015, the company allotted 1,44,97,774 0.001% compulsorily convertible preference shares which got converted into 10,35,555 of equity shares.

The overall performance of the company both in terms of turnover and earnings after tax significantly improved during the financial year ended 31 March 2015 due to overall growth of cable TV, Data, carriage fee and infrastructure leasing income. During the year under review, Andhra Pradesh has turned EBIDTA positive. During the year under review, the company continued to be a dominant player in the Cable TV market in Odisha and continued to consolidate its position in the other emerging markets too where operations were launched in last few years (Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh & West Bengal).

During the year under review, the company continued to be a significant Data Services provider in the market it operates in spite of severe competition from wireless service providers notably the national telecom companies. As on 31 March, 2015, the company provided 784.50 Mbps (Previous year 718.50 Mbps) bandwidth to various corporate customers, a 9.18% growth over previous year. During the year, the company aggressively pursued another major revenue generating stream by leasing out its own infrastructure to corporate clients for their communication requirement and leased out to various corporates a total of 761.42 kms as on 31 March, 2015.

Ortel Communications successfully completed an Initial Public Offer (IPO) got listed on both National Stock Exchanges of India Limited (NSE), being the designated Stock Exchange and BSE Limited (BSE) on 19 March, 2015. The issue was open for subscription on 3 March 2015 and closed on 5 March 2015. Out of 1200 lakh shares issued for subscription, 96,52, 500 shares including offer for sale by the selling share holder, NSR PE Mauritius, LLC was subscribed by the investors at a price band of Rs. 181-200 per share. The final price per share was finalized as Rs 181 per share by IPO Committee of the Board. After final rejection of the applications for various reasons out of 96,52,500 shares subscribed by public, 95,93,850 Nos of total shares consisting of 60,00,000 nos. of fresh shares and 35,93,850 nos shares out of offer for sale (OFS) were allotted based on the basis of allotment approved by NSE (Designated Stock Exchange) and also IPO Committee on 12 March, 2015. Further, the company got final listing permission of both BSE and NSE on 17 March 2015 and trading has been started with effect from 19 March, 2015.

During the financial year ended 31 March 2016, the company managed to expand aggressively not only in its existing markets but also in many new markets. In addition to the existing states of Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal, the company also started its operations in two new states; Madhya Pradesh and Telangana. By way of proactive plans and aggressive buying out of local cable operators, the company was able to increase its operational locations to seventy 70 from 39 during the previous financial year. During the year under review, the company continued to be a dominant player in the Cable TV market in Odisha and continued to consolidate its position in the states of Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh.

With the announcement made by the Government of India mandating the compulsory roll-out of digital cable TV services, the Company made a significant growth in its digital subscriber base and achieved 117.42% growth over last year with total subscriber base of 233,012 as on 31 March, 2016. The company seeded 107,175 Set Top Boxes (STB) during the year, thereby improving the digital penetration ratio to 37.1% from 22.7% in FY 2015

In spite of stiff competition from national telecom players, the company continued to be a significant Data service provider in its operational market. The company successfully implemented DOCSIS 3.0 high speed broadband service during the year under review. Seamless HD video content viewing as well as increased download speeds are the main benefits of DOCSIS 3.0 technology.

During the financial year ended 31 March 2017, the company's financial performance was adversely impacted due to factors such as; competition from new players, challenges in digital implementation in smaller markets. During the year, the company focused in consolidating the newly acquired markets in the recent past. During the year under review, the company continued to be a dominant player in the Cable TV market in Odisha and continued to consolidate its position in the states of Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. With competition across the Industry, the broadband growth was static during the year.

Financial year 2017-18 (FY 2018) was a challenging year for the company due to delay in collections, higher competitive intensity in the market as well as issues pertaining to debt payment. The Management reviewed the details of receivables and took a firm step by creating provision of Rs. 679.40 million against doubtful receivables, declaring bad debts of Rs.123.60 million and issuing credit notes of Rs.162.50 million. This amount is primarily on account of disruption of services during the process of digitization and acquisition of local operators. During the year under review, the company continued to be a dominant player in the Cable TV market in Odisha and continued to consolidate its position in the states of Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. As on 31.03.2018, the total Cable TV customer base has been increased to 7,66,980 (Previous Year: 7,50,471) which is a 2% growth over previous year. With mandatory digitization under phase III and Phase-IV, the company aggressively worked to maximise digitization and has made a significant growth in its digital subscriber base.

With competition across the Industry, the broadband growth reduced during the year. To offer better experience broadband speed to the customers, the company has withdrawn all the schemes where the download speed was below 2 Mbps.

During the year under review, the company incorporated 'Ortel Broadband Limited' as its wholly-owned subsidiary company in Delhi to provide internet services.