Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Q2 FY23 results conference call of GTPL Hathway Limited, hosted by Emkay Global Financial Services. We have with us today Mr. Anirudhasinh Jadeja, Promoter and Managing Director, Mr. Piyush Pankaj, Business Head, CATV, and Chief Strategy Officer, and Mr. Anil Bothra, Chief Financial Officer. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions at the end of today's presentation. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star then zero on your touchtone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Pulkit Chawla from Emkay Global Financial Services. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, Michelle. Good evening, everyone. I would like to welcome the management of GTPL Hathway and like to thank them for this opportunity. Without further delay, I shall now hand over the call to the management for their opening remarks. Over to you, gentlemen.
Thank you, Pulkit. Good evening, everyone. I'm pleased to welcome you all to our quarter two and half-year ended FY 2023 earnings conference call. Your company, GTPL Hathway, is driven by the very purpose of being present at your service through its Digital Cable TV distribution and high-speed Broadband product offering. Halfway into 16th year of our operation, I'm happy to share that we continue to be number one service provider in Digital Cable TV service in India and for Broadband service in Gujarat. The company has registered a strong performance in H1 FY 2023 by growing 10% revenue. Efforts are being made towards aggregating smaller MSO and additionally expanding the Broadband penetration. The Broadband segment presented great opportunity to grow due to consistent increase in demand for wireline Broadband and increasing data consumption patterns. While focusing on growth, we also continue to be a net debt-free company.
I now hand over to Mr. Piyush Pankaj, who will take you through business and financial update for the quarter.
Thank you, Mr. Jadeja. Good evening, everyone. I hope all of you are safe and healthy. I am pleased to announce the business and financial performance of GTPL Hathway for quarter two and H1 FY 2023. Our CATV subscriber base as on 30th September 2022 stands at 8.6 million. Paying subscribers for CATV stands at 8 million. On YoY basis, the increase in active and paying CATV subscribers is 550,000 and 650,000 respectively. We remain the largest MSO in India, riding on our quality services and consumer-centric products and services. We expect to grow our Digital Cable TV business by aggregating smaller MSOs and additionally expanding the Broadband penetration to Digital Cable TV base. In the Broadband business, we added 135,000 new subscribers on a YoY basis and 25,000 new subscribers on a QoQ basis.
Homepass subscribers stood at 5 million as on 30th September 2022, of which 75% are available for FTTH conversion. The Broadband ARPU for quarter two FY 2023 stood at INR 450. The average data consumption per customer per month stood at 300 GB, registering a 33% increase YoY. This segment continues to grow as data consumption is increasing due to push for digital growth, digital education, push for hybrid work culture, increased use of social media, et cetera. I am proud to announce that we have been recognized as The Economic Times Most Iconic Brands of 2022 by The Economic Times. The award is third in our list of accomplishments this calendar year. After the company was listed among India's Growth Champions 2022, published by The Economic Times and Statista, and among the High-Growth Companies Asia-Pacific 2022, published by Financial Times.
These awards are a testimony to our relentless customer-centric efforts. Moving on to the financial performance. On a consolidated level, excluding EPC contract, in quarter 2 FY 2023, revenue grew by 10% YoY to INR 6,620 million. The CATV subscription revenue stood at INR 2,751 million. The Broadband segment delivered robust growth of 19% YoY and revenue stands at INR 1,198 million, led by healthy subscriber additions. Consolidated EBITDA for the quarter stood at INR 1,383 million with a margin of 20.9%. Our continuous efforts to deleveraging our balance sheet and maintaining our net debt-free status is seen in our finance cost, which has reduced by 30% YoY and 5% QoQ. Our borrowings reduced by INR 335 million due to repayment of loans this quarter.
PAT for the quarter stood at INR 459 million, up 6% YoY. We can now begin with the question and answer session. Thanks.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone phone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. Reminder to all the participants to press star and one to ask a question. The first question is from the line of Pratiksha from Aequitas Investments. Please go ahead.
Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity. My first question was on the Cable TV side. We've been seeing some softening of ARPU since a couple of quarters now. Just wanted to hear your view on the outlook on ARPU here.
Hi, Pratiksha. Yeah, ARPU, you can say that it is at the same level as it was in Idea’s. We are not able to increase the ARPU and we are looking forward that we are going to increase the ARPU as we are entering into new markets. Still we are maintaining our ARPU at the same level because at present we are entering into the market where the average ARPU is less than our average ARPU in those markets. We are increasing our ARPU in our current market so that we can maintain our same ARPU. Once we are going to stabilize in the new market, we are going to take up the ARPU.
I will say on a year-on-year basis, you will see the growth in the ARPU by March 2023 or by June or September 2024. By that time, we are going to be stabilized in the new markets.
When we say stabilize, we're looking at around 120 levels, right?
We are at INR 120 levels right now, INR 190, INR 120. That is because we are going into the markets where the ARPUs are less right now. We are going to increase those ARPUs in new markets also. In old markets, we are increasing our ARPU, and that's why we are able to maintain the ARPU right now. Once those new markets are going to get stabilized, which will take 6-12 months, we will start seeing that the ARPU is increasing.
Okay. If you could just elaborate a little about the growth plan in subscribers in this business, because we've seen you know very volatile trend here. Also if you can comment on the gross addition and net addition and its own quarterly trend.
Yeah. As I have stated that on a year-over-year basis we have increased our paying subscribers by 650,000. Still, the revenue for some of the subscribers is going to start from quarter three and quarter four. We will start seeing it in the revenue side also, the growth. We are still maintaining that we'll do 1 million per annum, which is the target on which we are working towards. Already on a year-over-year basis, 650k we get. We have to do more around 500,000 to 600,000 more in this year, and we have to continue that trend going forward also. Yes, on the churn side, we will say that churn is from last year it was a bit under control.
Last year due to COVID and all, it has significantly high. We have controlled it. We have to put it down. Still pre-COVID era, the it is still higher than the pre-COVID era, I will say. We are trying to take care of that so that we can show more on the net addition side. We are confident that we will get those results.
Okay. On Broadband front, how do I look at quarterly additions? Every year I think we've seen the pace of growth has come down drastically in last two quarters. How do you want to describe the outlook here?
See, earlier we have given outlook that between 4,0000 to 50,000 per quarter we will do. First quarter we did around 35,000. This quarter it is 25,000 addition, mainly because of the monsoon. It was a extended monsoon for, mainly for the Gujarat, for us. Mainly it's happened for one month or one and a half month, but it was like all three months heavy rains were there, in Gujarat. That has affected a bit of our net additions. We are hopeful that we are going to cover it in the next six months' time, and we will come back to the same predictions which we have, given.
This is about roughly close to 1 million subscribers by the end of the year.
Yes. We are at 870,000 right now. We are looking forward that we are going to add around between 80,000 to 100,000 in this financial year. Close to 1 million.
Okay. How about home pass? Like, what is the do we have any you know targets set out here? I think last two quarters, H1 possibly done 30,000. How do I look at growth plan here on home pass basis?
Home pass, yes. As I said, we have planned it to ramp it up, but because of the rain, we are not able to ramp it up. If you see, we did 150,000 last two quarters. From 2.7, we have come to 5 million right now. We are looking forward that we will close year somewhere around 5.5 or 5.6 million. We are planning to do double that in next two quarters.
Okay, if you could just comment about the acceptance of GTPL Genie. How has that been going? You know, I understand that that should have improved the margins, but that really is not showing in the numbers. Is there anything else out there that is taking time?
GTPL Genie, you can say last six months, we have switched around 10,000 hybrid. As I said that, many customers have already subscribed to some OTT apps, and they want to go for hybrid upon completion of their existing subscription. Second, on the market feedback, which is, we have to come with the minimal validity packs and introduce smaller bundles of OTT apps. We have not did that because of the rains and all. We thought that we should wait for that for this launch. We are launching at the time of just after Diwali, where we are going to give two type of products. One product is with the hybrid box, and one product is going to be for my existing customers can opt OTT on mobile also.
With Broadband and with Cable TV, both bundled together. All this launch is going to happen around Diwali, and we are hopeful that we are going to get traction due to this. We will increase our horizon in terms of customers who use OTT offerings.
Okay. Lastly, how much CapEx have we incurred in each division this quarter?
Yeah. For the six months, we have did the CapEx of around ₹ 210 crore, where CATV, it has gone around ₹ 110 crore, and Broadband has gone ₹ 100 crores.
CATV ₹ 10 crore and Broadband ₹ 100 crore.
Yeah.
What are the CapEx plans for the balance year?
We are keeping the same CapEx plan of between ₹ 450 crore-₹ 470 crore for this year, where 50% is going to be in the CATV and 50% is going to be in the Broadband.
Okay. All right. Okay. Yeah. That is from my end. Thank you.
Thank you. A reminder to all the participants, anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone phone. The next question is from the line of Raj Ojha, an Individual Investor. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good afternoon. Thanks for your patience, sir. Sir, I have couple of questions. First question is related to subscriber base. I just wanted to understand how do we plan to increase our Broadband subscriber base, and especially which area we will be targeting for coming quarters or a year?
Raj. Thanks. Raj, three-fold strategy is there. One strategy is the B2C strategy, which we are doing right now.
Okay.
The 25,000 or 35,000 which you have seen in the last six months is mainly B2C subscribers for us. That's going to continue. The second strategy is in the rural Gujarat side where we have to expand. Right now we are at 110 cities only in Gujarat province. In Cable side we have presence at around 400 cities. We have to expand on that. Plus, we are going to leverage the GFGNL infrastructures which we have laid for the government and penetrate into the rural Gujarat side. The third strategy is your B2B segment, which we have started.
Mm-hmm.
Already a lot of things are in pipeline there. You can say around 60,000 subscriber base in the pipeline, and which we are seeing that that will come to us in the quarter three and quarter four. There are threefold strategies on which we are working to increase our subscriber base in rural parts.
Okay. That was really helpful, sir. Sir, also just wanted to understand, like government has been pushing various digital initiatives and motivating to connect rural areas to Broadband. At a macro level, how this thing can help us. Ultimately, how this can increase the benefit in the longer term?
See, as more digital adoption is happening in India.
Mm-hmm.
As the consistency side, if you say that is only wireline Broadband, which gives the consistency. Any homes, now at least they are not depending on totally on wireless. They wanted the wireline at home, and that is going to help us in increasing our subbase. Overall industry, if you talk about.
Correct. Yeah.
Like 310 million households.
Okay.
Out of that, only 25 million households is in the wireline Broadband right now. The opportunity is very big for all the players. We are looking forward that as the government initiatives, the infrastructure improvement happens in the country, the adoption of wireline Broadband is going to increase multi-fold. That's going to help all the players and whoever has the footprint of this, that's going to help them more on that basis. It's a very sunrise industry, I will say, and we are looking ahead to be part of that.
Okay. Sir, I have one last bookkeeping question. Like, we have been generating good cash flow and, like, we have got out of EPC business. Okay. I just wanted to understand now what will be the impact of this on our EBITDA margin going ahead?
EBITDA margin is going to improve as on the EPC. We were just making the EBITDA of around 8%-9%. Now as EPC project is not there, then, the regular businesses, which is at EBITDA margin of more than 20%, that is going to help us in the EBITDA margin.
Okay. That was useful, sir. Thank you.
Thank you. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touch-tone phone now. The next question is from the line of Karan Mehta from Nirzar Securities. Please go ahead.
Hello.
Hi, Karan.
Hi, sir. Thank you for this opportunity. I just have one question. What's the amount of recurring CapEx and the amount of new CapEx incurred for growth in CATV as well as Broadband business for the first half FY 2023?
Recurring CapEx is mainly in the CATV side. The main CapEx is your STBs. If I say the replacement STBs which we have to do from the new boxes, which is in the warranty period and all, which you can say as a recurring, it is more than around INR 200,000 or INR 250,000 in a year. Rest is for the new subscriber base, which we are incurring. If we are purchasing around 1.5 million boxes, out of that, 1.3 million boxes or 1.2, 1.25 million boxes is going for the new CapEx, new subscriber base. Hardly, you can say 15% is going on the recurring side.
The same trend is on the Broadband, where we have to do the replacement of your current.
Old LAN customers.
Old LAN customers, and we have to migrate to GPON. In the GPON, they have to be excited.
With this financial year, basically the CATV side set-top box might be a replacement bit higher because we are completely in this financial year migrating, removing entire MPEG-2 box to MPEG-4 box. So we are replacing old MPEG-2 box, and that's gives a very good support in future to upgrading our especially the channel lineup for addition for new channel, for saving for bandwidth, overall service to the service provider. Yes.
Okay. Sir, if you can just quantify this number of recurring CapEx?
For this year, I will say the recurring CapEx will be around for the 400K boxes, which is around the total CapEx, it is going to be around 22%. Generally, it is going to be somewhere between 12%-15% on the CATV side. On Broadband side, it is 15%. 15%-17%, it is maintained in that way.
Yeah. If you can just quantify the, I mean, the amount.
Amount on six months, if I talk about, it is going to be somewhere around ₹ 25 crore out of ₹ 110 crore is the CATV side, which is recurring. In the Broadband, it is going to be somewhere around ₹ 15 crore out of ₹ 100 crore in the first six months.
Okay. Yeah. Thanks a lot, sir. This was very helpful.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Akshay Jain from Equity Research. Please go ahead.
Hello.
Mr. Jain
Yeah.
Please proceed.
Hello, sir. Sir, I just had a few questions. We have increased receivables and even payables are higher compared to H1 last year. Just wanted to know reasons for the same.
Akshay, the total receivables are INR 3,565 million. If I compare these receivables with the September of FY 2022, it is almost around 3,226. Whereas if I compare this from the quarter four or 31st March 2022, it is 2,836. Increase is cyclical in nature, which is actually predominantly from the marketing and carriage receivable, and the same amount of payables are also going up. It is a kind of the arrangement between the marketing and carriage parties and the paid channel parties. It is a contra kind of entry. If you look at the trade payables on 30th September, it is INR 5,864 million, and the Q2 of last year, it was INR 5,550 million.
It is cyclical in nature. If we compare with the September number of last year, then it gives the correct picture. March, yes, the things will come back to the normal.
Okay, sir, one more question. I'm seeing that the segmental PBT is improving with the contributions on the Broadband segment. Going forward, what is your guidance for the current financial year and the next year on this?
Broadband, as we mentioned in earlier call also that we are making around 40% EBITDA in the Broadband business. As the Broadband business will go up, the contribution towards PBT and EBITDA is going to increase by the Broadband. In free to air TV side, we are making around 30%-32% EBITDA margin, and that is going to continue. As the Broadband business will start contributing more and more in the revenue side, you will see that in the EBITDA and PBT, the contribution is going to come more from the Broadband.
Sir, coming to the ARPU of your Broadband business, it's been broadly in the range of INR 445-INR 450. Do you see any improvement coming into the ARPU for Broadband segment in the coming quarters?
We are not giving any that the ARPU is going to increase. We have the whole management and the whole industry is concentrating more towards the subscriber additions, as the opportunity is very big, and we are going to continue that also. Yes, we are going to maintain our ARPU at good level. We are not looking forward that we will make it lesser than this. Yeah, subscriber addition is the main focus right now. Once the business will get mature, at that point of time, we will see that how to increase the ARPU.
Okay, sir. Thanks a lot for answering my question. Thank you.
Thank you. A reminder to all the participants to press star and one to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Dharma Venkatesan, an Individual Investor. Please go ahead.
Thank you for the opportunity, sir. My question is on your Cable business. Like you have mentioned that you are looking at inorganic acquisitions if anything comes up. Is there any specific region you are concentrating or it's still in early stages?
Can you repeat the question? The last portion was not very clear.
Okay. Sir, in your, like, in the Cable business, you said like we are looking at inorganic acquisitions. Is this still at very early stages, or is there any particular region that you want to expand to inorganic acquisitions?
No, no. We are looking forward to expand all over India, as we are already in 19 states and we are looking forward to enter into a few more states. We are looking forward for acquisitions in all the states where we are present. Wherever the opportunity is coming, we are going ahead with that. In quarter three and quarter four, you will see that some big acquisitions will come into our fold.
Okay, sir. I was late to join the call, so if this question was asked, so pardon me. Is there any update on the court case that we were having, or is it still at the same stage?
No, it is still under the same situation. There is
Which case?
We're talking about ADA. There is no movement on that. We are looking forward. I think one court case is happening in the first week of December at the Supreme Court. We are hopeful that some movement will happen at that point of time.
Okay, sir. As far as I understand that we have a precedent in this case which actually means that we don't have to pay the fine. That is how it is still there, right? Is my understanding wrong, sir?
No, no. Your understanding is right. You can see our notes, note number seven and eight in our results, which as we have given and put it into the notes. You can get a clear picture of those in note seven and eight of the results.
Okay, sir. Okay, sir. Thank you, sir. Thank you for your time.
Thank you. Participants who wish to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone phone now. As there are no further questions from the participants, I now hand the conference over to the management for closing comments.
Thanks everyone for joining the earnings call, and we look forward to again interact with you on the next quarter results, the quarter three results. Please be safe and healthy. Thanks a lot.
Thank you. On behalf of Emkay Global Financial Services, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.