Satyam Infoway Q4 net loss widens, revenue jumps

MUMBAI: Satyam Infoway, a leading Indian Internet services firm, on Monday

reported its net loss for January-March nearly quadrupled year-on-year but

narrowed it from the previous quarter.

The diversified Internet company - which is India's second-largest commercial

Internet service provider after state-run telecommunications firm Videsh Sanchar

Nigam Ltd - lost $18.2 million in the fourth quarter in contrast to $3.8 million

in the year ago period.

The company posted a loss of $18.4 million in the October-December quarter.

Total revenue in the fourth quarter, from the Internet access, corporate

services and portal businesses, doubled to $11.9 million from $5.9 million in

the year-ago period.

Operating loss at the firm narrowed to $7.3 million in January-March from

$8.5 million in the previous quarter. "This was a landmark quarter for us

in which we reduced our cash loss for the first time, which is a clear reversal

of a trend," R. Ramaraj, managing director, told a news conference in

Chennai.

"This was achieved by expanding sales revenue and reducing operating

costs simultaneously," he added. Satyam Infoway, which had $28 million in

cash at the end of 2000/01, expects to break even in the current year as

projected earlier, he said.

The net loss for the full year of 2000/01 was $53.5 million compared with

$8.1 million in the previous year. Nasdaq-listed Satyam Infoway is

majority-owned by Satyam Computer Services, a leading Indian software services

firm. Satyam Infoway's American Depositary Shares were down 4.1 per cent at

$3.74 on Nasdaq in Monday morning deals. Satyam had 410,000 retail Internet

accesses customers and another 50,000 community accesses customers, through

cyber-cafes at the end of the year.

Average revenue per user seen improving



Ramraj said the fall in average revenue per user (ARPU) seen in the first
three-quarters had been arrested in the fourth quarter. The ARPU was $1.42 per

user per month in the fourth quarter, but did not reveal the figures for the

previous quarters.

"We have raised prices on the unlimited access, which constitutes the

majority of the serious users, and on the other hand, we also expect bandwidth

costs to come down even further. So we should be abe to see ARPUs

improving," Ramaraj said. Satyam Infoway earned 68 per cent of its revenues

from corporate services, 24 per cent from retail Internet services and eight

percent from its portal business in the fourth quarter.

It expects corporate service revenues, which include e-business consultancy

and data management services, to rise to 70 percent of total revenue in the

future.

(C) Reuters Limited 2001.