GTPL Hathway Limited is one of the leading and largest multi-system-operators (MSO) in India, with presence over 11 states, providing Digital Cable Television and Broadband services. The company also
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has 26 indigenous cable channels being run on its platform. The Cable TV services are catered through main state-of-the-art head-end set-up at Ahmedabad and 4 support headends with a network of approximately over 20,000 Kms of Optical Fibre Cable spread across India reaching to over 500+ cities and 8.7 Million households.
During the financial year ended 31 March 2017, the company was converted into a public limited company pursuant to approval of the Board at their meeting held on August 23, 2016 and shareholders at an extraordinary general meeting held on August 26, 2016. Consequently, the name of the company was changed to 'GTPL Hathway Limited' and a fresh certificate of incorporation consequent upon conversion to a public limited company was granted by the Registrar of Companies, Ahmedabad on September 28, 2016.
The company and GTPL Broadband Private Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of the company, entered into the slump sale agreement dated April 1, 2016 for transfer of broadband business of the company to GTPL Broadband Private Limited with effect from April 1, 2016. The company and Gujarat Television Private Limited entered into a slump sale agreement for acquisition of 7 general entertainment cable television channels by the company, with effect from September 1, 2016.
During the year under review, GTPL TV Tiger Private Limited became the subsidiary company of GTPL Hathway.
During the financial year ended 31 March 2017, GTPL Hathway focussed on converting the Analogue CATV Customer to Digital CATV Customer mainly in its Phase 3 and Phase 4 market. The company seeded 1.48 million Set Top Boxes during the financial year. In Broadband Services business, the company increased its home pass (broadband enabled homes) by around 0.24 Million homes and added around 70000 subscribers during the financial year.
In June 2017, GTPL Hathway raised funds through Initial Public Offer (IPO) by offering of 28,517,650 Equity Shares having face value of Rs 10 each for cash at a price of Rs 170 per equity share aggregating to Rs 4,848 million comprising a fresh issue of 1,41,17,650 Equity Shares aggregating to Rs 2,400 million and an offer for sale of 14,400,000 equity shares. The bidding period for Anchor Investors opened on June 20, 2017. Six Anchor Investors were allocated 8,555,294 Equity Shares at a price of Rs 170 per equity share under the Anchor Investor portion, aggregating to Rs 1,454,399,980.
The IPO was open for subscription during the period from 21 June to 23 June 2017. The offer was subscribed to the extent of 1.4958 times (excluding Anchor). The Equity Shares of the company got listed at the BSE Limited and the National Stock Exchange of India Limited on 4 July 2017.
In July 2017, the company commissioned new next generation video headend with Harmonic Inc., USA as technology partner, capable of carrying 650+ channels and 50+ OTT channels. During the year ended 31 March 2018, GTPL Hathway added another feather to its cap of Conditional Access System (CAS), by enabling NSTV CAS systems, apart from existing 3 CAS viz., Nagra, Cisco & NDS.
The company added 1000+ new LCOs in 2017-18. The company also introduced 'Prepaid Model' for its LCOs during the year, which has not only ensured timely collection of revenues but also pushed digital collections, with close to 35% of total collections contributing from digital platforms, as at year end. The company seeded close to 1.8 Million Set Top Boxes (STB) during the year, with total STBs now seeded as 8.7 Million as at year end. The total active subscribers stood at 7.4 Million, with 1.42 Million subscribers being added during the year.
The company has reported increase in Phase I & Phase II ARPUs during 2017-18 by 3% & 7.37% respectively. Phase III & IV saw a growth of 14.81% and 26.82% respectively during FY 2018, primarily on account of the monetisation of the STBs seeded and advent of digitisation in these phases.
On Broadband front, GTPL Hathway is upgrading its network to Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) technology, with capability of servicing high speed internet, upto 100 MBPS and launched high speed and high volume, with 'no data restriction' Broadband services in Ahmedabad city in February 2018. The Company also upgraded, during the year, its Operations Support System (OSS), 'Net Vertex' & Billing Support System (BSS), 'Crestel' products of Sterlite Technologies Limited.
The company bagged 2 prestigious 5-year contracts from Government of Gujarat, under Digital India Project for provision of broadband services, worth Rs 482 Million. The chief minister of launched the urban wifi free public services on successful completion of the project by the company on May 9, 2018.
The company launched its Mobile App 'GTPL Saathi' in April 2018 to enable its local cable operators (LCOs) to conduct their business from mobile. The app aims to provide all the business transactions being seamlessly carried out from the mobile device, with real-time and direct integration with its subscriber management systems. The Company also revamped its consumer app 'My GTPL' providing its customers (Video & Broadband segment) with their billing, data usage pattern, making payments for renewals, etc. with real-time and direct integration with its subscriber management systems.
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