Vodafone Idea-owned You Broadband slips into the red in FY18

Vodafone Idea-owned You Broadband India has slipped into the red with a net loss of Rs 25.7 crore during the fiscal ended 31 March 2018 as against a net profit of Rs 20.3 crore in the previous fiscal.

The internet service provider’s (ISP) revenue for the fiscal has expanded to Rs 180.7 crore compared to Rs 170 crore in the trailing fiscal. The information is based on the information provided by the company to rating agency Crisil.

The rating agency has withdrawn its rating on the short-term bank facilities of You Broadband India. The ratings on the proposed short-term loans have been withdrawn based on the company’s request as it has not utilised the facilities.

The ratings on the short-term loan facility have been withdrawn based on the company’s request and the receipt of no dues certificate from the bank. The rating action is in line with CRISIL’s policy on withdrawal of ratings.

As reported earlier, You Broadband had an aggressive expansion plan entailing a Capex of over Rs 600 crore in the next two fiscals, against a capex of Rs 54 crore in fiscal 2017. The company intended to fund the Capex through a vendor financing arrangement with a credit period of a year.

You Broadband was fully acquired by Vodafone India with effect from June 2017. Vodafone recently merged with Idea Cellular to create India’s largest telecom company in terms of revenue and subscribers.

According to an earlier Crisil report, You Broadband will get strong support from Vodafone to scale-up operations and generate healthy operating margin. You Broadband, which deploys fibre to home technology, is of strategic importance to the Vodafone-Idea merged entity.

Vodafone’s large customer base facilitates cross-selling opportunities for You Broadband thereby reducing its new customer acquisition cost, provide better negotiation power with lenders and vendors, and also enable significant Capex synergies, Crisil had stated in its report.

Additionally, You Broadband’s products are now sold through the extensive network of Vodafone stores, which brings in strong distribution synergies.

Incorporated in 2001, You Broadband provides broadband services to home retailers and small and medium enterprises. It is a category-A ISP, providing broadband and related value-added services to customers in over 18 cities under its brand, You Broadband.

As of August 2017, You Broadband had 0.66 million customers.

Yor Broadband has over 3000 kms of optic fibre cable and 17000 kms of last mile coaxial cable network in all its operational cities facilitates world-class service delivery to its customers. The company has so far invested Rs 4 billion on broadband cable infrastructure across 18 operational cities.

The network has been put together by partnering with companies likes Motorola, Avvaya, Commscope, Cisco etc. You employs over 2000 people across 18 cities and plans to double up its talent base over the next two years.