SIFY Reports US GAAP Results for the Quarter Ended 30th June 2003.Business Editors CHENNAI, India--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 15, 2003 Sify Revenues Continue Strong Growth Over Last Year; Prepares for Next Level of Growth & Consolidation Sify Limited (Nasdaq:SIFY), India's premier Internet, networking and e-Commerce company, announced today its consolidated US GAAP GAAP See: Generally Accepted Accounting Principles GAAP See generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). results for the first quarter ended June 30th 2003. Performance highlights: -- Sify's sales revenue during the quarter at $12.95 million was 49% higher than same quarter last year. -- Sify incurred a planned cash loss (in adjusted EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) A metric used to show a company's profitability, but not its cash flow. EBITDA became popular in the 1980s to show the potential profitability of leveraged buyouts, but has become terms) of $1.37 million during the quarter compared to $4.37 million for the same quarter last year. There were significant planned onetime costs incurred in building the Sify iWay brand concurrent with a drive to expand the number of cybercafes across the country. -- Cash burn during the quarter was $1.57 million attributable substantially to investments made in expanding the technology infrastructure to support the envisaged expansion in the cybercafe The first Internet cafe in the U.S. Founded in 1995 in New York, the menu is a selection of fine coffees and desserts along with Internet, e-mail, printing, scanning and faxing services. Hats, shirts and jackets are also available for purchase. business. -- Net loss during the quarter at $4.46 million was 51% less than that of same quarter last year. Mr. R Ramaraj, Managing Director and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. , said, "It was not too difficult a choice for us to evaluate between maintaining cash profits and incurring one time marketing expenses for the expanding cybercafe business. I am pleased to report that the number of cybercafes in our iWay network has exceeded 1,000 this quarter and is becoming a model for delivering broadband Internet See broadband. across the country to people without PCs at home." Mr. George Zacharias, President & COO, said, "In addition to investing in our core businesses, we have exited a few businesses during the quarter to improve efficiencies. We have exited the set-top box The cable TV box that sits on "top" of the TV "set," although it is often located several feet away in an equipment rack. The set-top box descrambles the premium channels and provides a tuner for the higher cable numbers that very old TVs did not support. joint venture with Baron and the India Plaza portal during the quarter. We have also sold our investment in the Satyam Institute of E Business in the first week of July 2003. This rationalization will allow us to use the $29 million cash in hand as of date ($23 million cash at end of quarter) in a focussed manner. This is as per our business strategy and plan, laying the foundation for growth in revenues in the latter half of the year. We will continue to invest for growth in the near term in market development, bandwidth and customer acquisition to consolidate the company's position and competitiveness in every line of business."
Summarized Results:
(In $ million, all translated at $1 = Rs 46.40)
Description Quarter Quarter Year
ended ended ended
30 Jun 31 Mar 31 Mar
2003 2002 2003 2003
------------- ------- -------
Corporate services 6.09 4.55 6.54 21.89
Retail internet access 5.03 2.95 4.47 14.54
Interactive services 0.55 0.81 0.83 3.55
Others 1.28 0.40 1.24 3.00
Sales Revenue 12.95 8.71 13.07 42.98
Adjusted EBITDA (a) (1.37) (4.37) 0.30 (10.56)
Depreciation &
amortization (3.10) (3.07) (2.89) (13.08)
Impairment of
goodwill/assets 0.00 (1.86) (0.93) (5.33)
Depreciation/impairment
in Affiliates (0.17) (0.12) (0.27) (0.81)
Profit on business
sold/discontinued 0.00 0.00 0.49 0.53
Net interest 0.18 0.15 0.33 0.67
Tax (0.00) 0.09 (0.19) (0.06)
Net income/(loss) (4.46) (9.18) (3.17) (28.64)
Adjusted EBITDA (a)
(loss) $/ADR (0.04) (0.19) 0.01 (0.41)
Net income/(loss) $/ADR (0.13) (0.40) (0.10) (1.10)
(a) Adjusted EBITDA represents net income (loss) before interest,
income tax, depreciation and amortization, impairment of intangible
assets and results of discontinued operations. Please see "Non-GAAP
Financial Information," below.
Corporate Services Activities that combine or consolidate certain enterprise-wide needed support services, provided based on specialized knowledge, best practices, and technology to serve internal (and sometimes external) customers and business partners. : Key Customer wins in data/network services include Ranbaxy, HDFC HDFC Housing Development Finance Corporation (India) HDFC Housing Development Fund Corporations (New York City limited-equity, low income, housing cooperatives) HDFC Huntington's Disease Family Center Standard Life, Hinduja TMT TMT 1 Tarsometatarsal 2 Thermomechanical treatment 3 Treatment, see there , Schenker India, Vetri Software, Asia on Wheels and CGTSI (formerly SIDBI SIDBI Small Industries Development Bank of India ). Key wins in Application Services See ASP and Web services. include State Bank of India State Bank of India (SBI) (LSE: SBID) is the largest bank in India. If one measures by the number of branch offices and employees, SBI is the largest bank in the world. Established in 1806 as Bank of Bengal, it is the oldest commercial bank in the Indian Subcontinent. , Johnson and Johnson, SRF SRF abbr. somatotropin-releasing factor , GSK- Consumer division and Universitas 21-Singapore. A branded offering in the area of Internet Infrastructure Management Services, named 'Netsourze,' was launched during the quarter. This suite of services makes Sify the only Hosting Services Provider moving up the value chain to offer a complete basket of tools for monitoring, analyzing and rectification of the entire application environment. A Competency Center was established at Mumbai to showcase Sify's capabilities in providing security and solutions. The center simulates solutions on access content filtering See Web filtering and parental control software. , token access, etc. through integration of diverse hardware and software. Sify launched "Apna Website," a first of its kind solution targeted specifically at small businesses looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. a web presence. It makes the business independent of the complexity of the process of building, hosting and managing websites. Sify's subsidiary Safescrypt launched SafeDoxx, a desktop signing utility that enables users to digitally sign and encrypt files on their computers. Key wins in this business include Wipro, Mphasis, Mastek, MEPZ MEPZ Madras Export Processing Zone (India) MEPZ Mactan Export Processing Zone (Philippines) and SEEPZ SEEPZ Santa Cruz Electronics Export Processing Zone (India) SEEPZ Santacruz Electronics Exports Processing Zone . Consumer Services Consumer Services refers to the formulation, deformulation, technical consulting and testing of most consumer products, such as food, herbs, beverages, vitamins, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, hair products, household cleaners, [paints, plastics, metals, waxes, coatings, minerals, : The Access Media business segment accounted for 39% of Sify's revenue made up as below: Internet access at home through dial up/broadband etc 20% Internet access at "iWay" cybercafes 13% Other value added services 6% In the dial-up market, Sify continued to be a leader in spite of intense price competition from telcos by offering a superior quality of user experience with first time connectivity, uninterrupted services and speedy downloads. Sify extended broadband Internet access Broadband Internet access, often shortened to just "broadband", is high speed Internet access—typically contrasted with dial-up access over modem. Dial-up modems are generally only capable of a maximum bitrate of 56 kbit/s (kilobits per second) and require the full use of a to homes by providing services through tie-ups with cable operators in several cities. Sify's iWay cyber cafes increased to over 1000 with the service being extended to cover 25 cities. More than 90% of them are on broadband with high speed, reliable last mile connectivity managed by Sify. This has enabled us to provide a superior quality of user experience. About Sify: Sify is the largest network and e-Commerce services company in India, offering end-to-end solutions with a comprehensive range of products delivered over a common Internet backbone (communications, networking) Internet backbone - High-speed networks that carry Internet traffic. These communications networks are provided by companies such as AT&T, GTE, IBM, MCI, Netcom, Sprint, UUNET and consist of high-speed links in the T1, T3, OC1 and OC3 ranges. infrastructure. This Internet backbone reaches 55 points of presence in India, representing an estimated 90% of the established PC base in the country. A significant part of the company's revenue is derived from Corporate Services, which include corporate connectivity, network and communications solutions, security, network management services and hosting. As of June 30, 2003, a host of blue chip customers used Sify's corporate service offerings. The company's network services, data center operations and customer relationship management are accredited accredited recognition by an appropriate authority that the performance of a particular institution has satisfied a prestated set of criteria. accredited herds cattle herds which have achieved a low level of reactors to, e.g. ISO (1) See ISO speed. (2) (International Organization for Standardization, Geneva, Switzerland, www.iso.ch) An organization that sets international standards, founded in 1946. The U.S. member body is ANSI. 9001:2000. For more information about Sify, visit www.sifycorp.com. Non-GAAP Financial Information Our presentation of financial information above includes a presentation of Adjusted EBITDA. EBITDA is neither an Indian GAAP measure nor a U.S. GAAP measure and should not be considered in isolation or as an alternative to net income as an indicator of operating performance or as an alternative to cash flow as a measure of liquidity. Our presentation above also includes a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to net loss, which we believe to be the most comparable financial measure under U.S. GAAP. Adjusted EBITDA is presented because it is a basis upon which our management assesses our financial performance and because we believe some investors find it to be a useful tool for measuring a company's ability to fund operating obligations and capital expenditures. Investors evaluating our financial performance or analyzing our discounted cash flows based on Adjusted EBITDA should consider financing activities and non-recurring charges that are not included in the calculation. Our calculation includes significant charges recorded to reflect the impairment of goodwill which are not included in the calculation of EBITDA under the SEC's rules applicable to periodic reports. While EBITDA or derivations thereof are frequently reported by many companies as a supplemental measure of operations, it is not necessarily comparable to other similarly titled captions of other companies due to potential inconsistencies in the method of calculation. Forward Looking Statements: This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. The forward-looking statements contained herein are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those reflected in the forward-looking statements. Sify undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statements. For a discussion of the risks associated with Sify's business, please see the discussion under the caption "Risks Related to Our Business" in the company's report on Form 20F for the year ended March 31, 2003 which has been filed with the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. Securities and Exchange Commission and is available by accessing the database maintained by the SEC at www.sec.gov. |
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