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Sify's Q4 loss declines 50% to $8.4 million

BS ICE Bureau

The Nasdaq-listed Satyam Infoway Ltd, the biggest private Internet service provider in India, posted a net loss of $8.4 million in the fourth quarter (January-March) of 2001-02, as compared to $17.5 million for the corresponding period last year.

The revenue for the quarter has gone up 16 per cent and stands at $8.2 million. This is a 4.7 per cent decline from the preceding quarter. The revenue in the third quarter was $8.6 million. The results were announced before trading began at Nasdaq.

Sify reported a sales revenue of $32.3 million for 2001-02. This represented a 29 per cent increase over the previous year. The company's cash loss was $20.1 million for 2001-02, a 26 per cent drop over the previous year. Sify has a cash reserve of $16 million.

The company said the cash loss in the fourth quarter over the third quarter was higher because it had invested $1.5 million in building voice over internet and converting cybercafes to new-generation fixed wireless broadband offering.

The net loss for 2001-02 stood at $147.5 million, or $1.59 per ADR. Managing director R Ramraj said the company was considering raising prices of limited retail packs, though he refused to say when and by how much.

President and chief operating officer George Zacharias said Sify was losing Rs 4-5 on limited pack internet offerings in the retail market. It cannot afford this for long.

The company is reducing exposure to the retail segment while increasing exposure to the corporate segment.

For 2001-02, 52 per cent of its revenues came from corporates while 48 per cent came from retail and 'i-way' chain of internet cafes.

Ramraj said Sify expected the market to grow significantly this year. Internal bandwidth demand was expected to more than double. Sify is expecting bandwidth prices to drop 30 per cent this year. The drop will positively impact the company's bottom line in the second quarter of the current fiscal.

Sify hopes to tie up with private basic telephony operators like Bharti and Tata for a revenue-sharing arrangement. Now, it does not have any such arrangement.

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