MUMBAI: With digitisation firm on the government‘s agenda, DEN Networks Ltd, a leading multi-system operator (MSO), has got the board approval to double its borrowing power from existing Rs 10 billion to Rs 20 billion.

The company also said on Tuesday that its consolidated net profit for the third quarter ended 31 December rose 10 per cent to Rs 171.7 million from Rs 155.9 million in the previous quarter, in line with revenue growth.

Incidentally, this quarter saw the rollout of the first phase of digitisation in the four metros. The government stuck to the deadline of 1 November, though digitisation got disrupted in Chennai due to a Madras High Court order.

DEN’s consolidated Ebidta for the three-month period beginning 1 September jumped 22 per cent to Rs 603.9 million from Rs 308.4 million in the trailing quarter.

The company’s consolidated net revenue grew 12 per cent to Rs 2.41 billion from Rs 2.16 billion in the previous quarter. Its expenditure during the quarter increased to Rs 1.81 billion from Rs 1.66 billion due to rise in operation expenses.

DEN’s net profit from cable business was up 19 per cent to Rs 159.5 million from Rs 133.9 million in the previous quarter. Its operating profit rose 26 per cent to Rs 585.3 million from Rs 463 million.

Its revenues from the cable business grew 13 per cent to Rs 2.29 billion from Rs 2.02 billion in the previous quarter.

DEN’s net profit from distribution business was Rs 12.4 million on income of Rs 123.3 million and expenditure of Rs 104.7 million.

On the first phase of digitisation, the MSO said it along with its affiliates seeded over 1.8 million set-top boxes (STBs) in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. About half of these STBs were deployed in the third quarter.

DEN has presence in 23 of the 38 cities where digitisation will happen in phase 2, including all the seven cities of Uttar Pradeh, five towns in Maharashtra, 3 in Gujarat, two each in Rajasthan and Karnataka, and 1 each in Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Haryana. Den said it has already seeded over 600,000 STBs in these markets.

The company said it was also gearing to build a high speed broadband internet service and offer bundled double play and triple play services to consumers in fully digitised markets over the next few quarters.