Foresee 30% revenue growth in FY12: Wire & Wireless India

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Wire & Wireless India reported an advance of 13% (YoY) in its revenues at Rs 88.4 cr versus Rs 67.6 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2011. During the same period, it reported a net loss of Rs 1.8 crore as against Rs 53 crore in the previous year. The operating profit margins stood at 2%.

Sudhir Agarwal, chief executive officer of Wire & Wireless India, in an exclusive interview with CNBC-TV18's Sonia Shenoy and Mitali Mukherjee, said, "The company has reduced expenses by 17% in FY11 and sees interest costs shrinking going forward. We expect revenues to rise 30% to Rs 400 crore and EBITDA at Rs 90 crore for FY12."

Addressing the negativities in the economy, he said, under-declaration is a key concern for the industry. 

Below is the verbatim transcript of his interview. Also watch the accompanying video

Q: Give us a take on your your EBITDA performance, this quarter you have reported EBITDA of Rs 1.5 crore versus loss that you saw earlier on, do you think you will continue to report positive operating profit performance into FY12?

A: Certainly, we had a spectacular year last year, registering growth of 31% in the fourth quarter. During the same period, we had operative revenue of Rs 88.4 crore versus Rs 67.6 crore last year. Similarly, for the whole year we grew by 13% in revenue and reduced expenses by 17%, which was phenomenal for us.  Thereby our operating profit was Rs 16.4 crore for the whole year versus minus Rs 63.2 crore, annually. I am confident this progression will continue from hereon.

Q: For the full year FY12, the company has posted net loss. How can you bring a turnaround from the performance in black and what kind of EBITDA levels you hope to deliver?

A: We foresee 30% growth next year. Dalal Street comes out with an annual compendium on midcap companies and WWIL has been rated as one of the best counters in the country. This has boosted confidence for the next year. Earlier, we had set out on a task of reviving the organization and succeeded. Now, we are on the path to complete growth.

Q: You have said 30% growth in revenues for FY12, right?

A: Correct.

Q: What would translate into EBITDA level growth?

A: For FY12, our revenue and EBITDA targets are Rs 400 crore and Rs 90 respectively.

Q: Brief us on the operation matrix, where does the average revenue per user (ARPUs) stand?

A: We reach out to almost 10 million customers across the country, almost one-fifth of the market share. So out of every five subscribers in the country, one belongs to WWIL. In terms of ARPUs, they have been stable and we haven't registered much growth in this space. Carriage revenues and increasing footprint across the country have boosted growth.

Q: What will really help you achieve that 30% top-line growth going into FY12, will it be digitization what do you expect to see in terms of contribution to your revenue growth?

A: We have consolidated our position internally, and we have reduced our expenses by 17% over the whole year. So as far as internal organization is concerned, we are stable and now the effort would be in driving engagement with the markets. So we are talking about increasing our footprint across the country. Digitization would certainly play a critical role for us and the government has announced the policy for digitization across the country and they have come out with a sunset date also which is December 2014. So it's in four phases starting March 2012. So my belief is that the heat is on and the fun has started now in this industry. There was lot of under declaration in the industry which was plaguing the industry and with this government initiative I think this would benefit everyone, all the stake holders and all the players. The government exchequer, the broadcastersm, the MSOs etc because of digitization

Q: A two part question: how much do you expect interest cost to decline in FY12 and you haven't looked to raise any money since 2009, will WWIL need to raise that cash and might it look to do that in this year?

A; We have reduced our interest cost by 18% last year and we will continue to do that and you will see interest cost coming down in couple of quarters going forward from now. We do not intend to raise any capital from the market at this juncture, we will wait and watch and should it be required we want shy away from raising capital from the market.

One of the fallouts of the declaration of Government's digitization policy, we are getting a lot of enquiries from companies from all over the world who are keen on investing into our company. They are making lot of enquiries, they are meeting us because digitization I believe and they as well would add to growth in this industry tremendously in next couple of years.

Also read: See FY12 profits improving based on global factors, says Voltas