What makes IOL Broadband a hot company in Dalal Street? IOL’s stock has been regularly hitting upper circuit at the Bombay Stock Exchange where it’s trading. It hit the upper circuit limit of 5 per cent today too to close at 52-week high of Rs 135.80. It seems IOL has aroused investor interest with its content plans for the impending IPTV rollout in India.
AS Oberai, Director of IOL Broadband, told CNBC TV18 that his company has 20,000 hours of content in its library. It includes Hindi, regional and English movies. As for subscriber base, he expects the number of users to go to about 50,000 subscribers in the next four months and about 300,000 subscribers by end of next year.
Oberai says that it will take the turnover of the company to Rs 40 crore this year, and Rs 300 crore next year and Rs 600 crore the following year. The numbers look rosy, while it remains to be seen how IPTV is taking off in the key cities like Mumbai.
IOL Broadband had recently received Rs 12 crore investment from Bennet, Coleman & Co (Rs 5 crore) and Maula Trading Co (Rs 7 crore). Its FII allotment limit was also increased to 49 per cent. There were a couple of postive news developments, and that might have triggered the interest. IOL is a content partner for MTNL’s IPTV services in Mumbai and it also plans to start IPTV in Bangalore with BSNL.