Inet.sk - internetový denník

Pôvodná diskusia k článku

Pozrite si spravu agentury Reuters, DIGI ma problem splacat dlh a nie ze "vysoke zisky". Nech sa paci, tu je to, odporucam precita najma 2 a 3 odsek:

Overrevved Expansion

Jack Mikaloff, leader of UPC’s Romanian cable TV venture, got pretty upset when he took over the management of the company last year. „In Romania the prices of services are dramatically low. If a company is offering satellite TV for the lei equivalent of two Euros, believe me, they are not making any money on it, this kind of competition is to some extent irrational”– he told the business paper Ziarul Financiar. Mikaloff was alluding to the crazy price competition generated between UPC, Romtelecom and RCS&RDS, which gradually crushed the profit that could have been made in this business sector. But this was only a surprise for someone who came from afar – this seemingly irrational approach is “the usual way” for RCS&RDS, who in Hungary provide their services under the DIGI brand name.



Although, as Kristóf Kosik, Hungarian DIGI’s legal counsel said, their mode of operation is extremely simple: gain subscribers with affordable prices; most of the industry still considered this approach pretty foggy. The main owner of the company, Zoltán Teszári, the billionaire entrepreneur from Nagyvárad/Oradea, legendary for his avoiding of the public and not allowing anybody to look into his cards, is basically still singlehandedly managing his, in the meantime quiet big company group, which operates in six countries. For a while now, he is also personally acting as the managing director of his Hungarian venture (see the Digitátor article in Figyelő 2008/22.). The history of DIGI shows that the key to its development (or even to its plain survival) is the fast growth of its subscriber base. As a habit, the company “attacks” a market with drastically low pricing. According to the competitors, Digi’s service does not allow for any profit margin, but Kristóf Kosik says that these are definitely no dumping prices. Anyway, DIGI in Romania and Hungary “exploded”, first into the CATV and satellite TV markets, later it also expanded into cable internet, fixed line telephony and in Romania it even gained a mobile telephony license. In Hungary they are present in about 600,000 households, 400,000 of these being satellite customers, showing that this subscriber base stagnates since the initial “explosion” of the first years. In the whole region (CE), RCS&RDS has about 5 million subscribers, its revenue was about 700 million USD last year, about 1/7 of it coming from Hungary. Its tactics in telecommunications (and in the related media industry, since DIGI also owns some TV channels for a while now) are considered more risky than average, because of the high initial investment and the need for continuous development. First networks have be built, or bought, or improved, media rights have to be paid, and according to the DIGI model these investments will only return if masses of people wil



RCS&RDS – respectively its legal predecessor – had to get a bigger loan already in 2002, to be able to keep up its expansion pace. Three years ago the company attempted to gain a bigger capital injection at the London Stock Exchange, about 400–600 million Dollars’ worth of it, but the attempt failed. According to the news at that time, the potential investors were only willing to spend about half of the desired sum for the 15% ownership, which was offered. This would not have solved the company’s financing and would have devalued the company as a whole. That DIGI pretty soon got a syndicated loan of 500 million USD from ING and Citi Bank together, proved that the craved for sum was really needed. This seemed to have solved the financing, but it also seems that the speed of growth was not satisfactory in the last few years, since – according to Romanian press reports – DIGI’s present liquidity is not sufficient. If money comes in, it is immediately used for repayment of loans or for funding construction of networks, e.g. 2008 the Hungarian venture only had an OCF of 180 million HUF out of a 20 billion HUF turnover. Last year the Romanian mother company brought up the plan to issue bonds in value of 200 million USD, but the transaction took a slow start and now “it got postponed”, this meaning it had to be cancelled. Kristóf Kosik couldn’t provide any useful information on this topic.

The sum would actually only be sufficient to allow DIGI to catch its breath, since in 2011 and 2012 they have to pay more than 200 million USD worth of liabilities, mostly related to the 2007 loan. Both Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s categorized the bonds as speculative venture capital investment, so they consider the company a serious risk. But what was even worse news for Digi, was that the investors found the 9.75 to 10% interest offered on the bonds expiring in 2017 too low, because of the involved risk, this is said to have led to the “postponing” of the transaction. Similar bond issues in the US are traded at 9.64% interest, but DIGI would have to go higher because of the risk factor, so 10% airs low. The company’s debt is 2.5-fold of the company’s EBITDA. In Attila Gyurcsik’s opinion: „This ratio is considered relatively high in this sector, Magyar Telekom has a 1-1 ratio, Polish telecom TPSA 0.8-1, but there are companies with worse ratios than DIGI’s”. So presently the market is asking for more than Teszári can offer, probably he is now pondering if he should put his company under even more pressure to perform by issuing bonds at over 10% interest, or if he should look for some other way of financing. But one thing is definitely sure, capital will be needed and within a definite short timeframe.

It can also be imagined that Teszári will have to gradually change his, up to now very aggressive, market conquering strategy in the future. According to Romanian press information, recently a new external member has joined the company’s board, a person named by the creditor banks. Experts assume that ING and Citi would like to influence the company’s decisions, on one hand because the fulfillment of the commitments made at the time of providing the loan became questionable, on the other hand, because they would like to pressure the company to change its focus from conquering market shares to increasing profits.

11. 03. 2010 dth user 217.23.240.xxx

Digi je v pohode a s mojim IP BOX 350S je dobry obraz aj na 50" obrazovke, co mam od leta.

Len EPG ma tam strasne se.ie :(((

15. 03. 2010 Pauli 217.73.19.xxx

Je Vaša doména voľná?

Overiť

Platená reklama

Textová reklama

Ako začať podnikať na internete? Nechajte si poradiť. Aký má byť obsah kvalitne www stránky? Tvorba www stránok, Tvorba webu, Redakčný systém - CMS, Prieskumy o nakupovaní na internete, Pôžičky

Newsletter