Moser Baer: Fiscal 4Q08 Financial Results

Moser Baer India Limited, headquartered in New Delhi, announced its Financial Results for the fourth quarter of Fiscal Year ended 31st March 2008 (FY ‘08).

Gross revenue in Q4 of FY ’08 stood at INR 4866.3 million as against INR 5507.8 in Q4 of Fiscal Year ended 31st March 2007 (FY07). For FY08, the company reported a gross revenue of INR 19,654.0 million as compared to INR 20,746.0 million in FY ‘07.
EBITDA for FY ‘08 is INR 5136.6 million translating into an EBITDA margin of 25.7% for FY ‘08 against 29.2% in FY07. This is mainly on account of pricing pressure being experienced in the global optical media market on account of the Philips licensing issue.

The company registered a Cash Profit of INR 450.8 million for Q4 of FY’ 08 and at INR 3542.7 million for the FY ’08. The optical media business also generated INR 2813.1 million of cash from operations in FY ‘08 despite the difficult market environment.
The company registered a Net Loss after tax of INR 717.2 million in Q4 of FY ‘08 as against a Net Profit after tax of INR 397.2 million recorded in Q4 of FY ’07. For the fiscal year ending 31st March 2008, the company recorded a Net Loss of INR 792.6 million as compared to Net Profit of INR 1097.9 million in FY ‘07.

The highlights of the current year have been the increasing contribution from new businesses. While the Entertainment business achieved net break even in less than 12 months on operations, the PV business has also achieved significant revenue traction and is rapidly achieving scale. The entertainment business achieved a revenue of USD 10 million in Q4 of FY 08, while the company’s wholly owned PV subsidiary achieved USD 20 million in revenues during the Q4 of FY ‘08.

According to Ratul Puri, Executive Director, Moser Baer India, “Our aggressive volume-price strategy over the past year has started to yield results with fringe players finding it hard to sustain themselves. Industry consolidation and increasing demand traction in Blu-Ray are the positive hues to an otherwise sedate industry environment in the near to medium term. Long term variables still remain healthy as need for storage and consumer demand continues to grow. We continue to invest judiciously in new generation technology as the optical media business continues to generate substantial free cash in a difficult environment.”
“Our new businesses are growing steadily and are poised to scale up rapidly. We have already emerged as the largest player in the Home Video segment, with this business expected to grow to revenues of USD 200 million by 2010. PV is set for an explosive growth as we execute capacity expansion in a supply constrained industry. We aim to be one of the leading players in the world”, he added.

Yogesh Mathur, Group CFO, Moser Baer India said, “In Blank Optical Media, our production was disrupted in mid-year due to problems in our power plant. The issue is fully resolved and capacity optimization will be achieved in the coming quarters. Turnover was also impacted during the year by the strengthening of rupee and the difficult industry environment. Overall, aggressive pricing and flat sales volume were the two major contributory factors affecting the bottom line; however, net operating cashflows continue to be strong on the back of judicious capex spends and working capital control. In the forthcoming few quarters, both PV and Entertainment continues to implement their growth plans while the optical media business will generate substantial free cash from operations.”

Adds Ravi Khanna, CE, MBPV, “The PV business has stablized the initial 40MW line to achieve benchmark yields and productivity norms on both cells and modules as well as achieved landmark long term sourcing contracts for wafers; we continue to ramp up capacities in a rapidly growing global market.”

“The Entertainment business will benefit from the selective foray into content creation which will complement the Home Video segment. Our initial foray in Content production with ‘Shaurya’ and ‘Vellitherai’ has received good response from viewers and critical acclaim. We are well on our way to achieve set targets”, Harish Dayani, CE, Moser Baer Entertainment, said.

PV Business- Update & Outlook
The PV business achieved revenues of USD 20 million in Q4 of FY ’08 and USD 43 million in FY ’08. The 40 MW crystalline silicon line is being expanded to 80 MW as planned by the end of next month. The production capacity of solar modules has been expanded to 40 MW. The Thin Film project facility is nearing completion with commencement of mechanical trials expected in early May 2008.
The business has tied up significant customer orders and MoUs, including two solar farms in Rajasthan and Punjab. The company plans to aggressively tie up further arrangements in several states to drive grid-connected solar farms to demonstrate their techno-economic viability and attractive returns as a source of green peaking power. The company is on track to ramp up crystalline silicon cell line capacity to 180 MW in FY 09 and is tying up equipment for the 600 MW expansion of Thin Film capacity.

Entertainment Business- Update & Outlook
The Entertainment business achieved breakeven and has registered revenues of USD 42 million for FY ’07. The company has released its first Hindi feature film ‘Shaurya’ and first Tamil film ‘Vellitharai’ in theatres across India.
Emphasis on acquiring new title releases should help give further impetus to the growth of the business. The business remains on track to achieve revenues of over USD 200 million by 2010.