HOT 3Q profit more than doubles

HOT currently provides services to more than one million customers in Israel.

By YEHUDA SHARONI/MAARIV HASHAVUA
(photo credit: RAMI ZERINGER)
(photo credit: RAMI ZERINGER)
Cable company HOT published its third-quarter results over the weekend, showing a 139% surge in profit to NIS 74 million. HOT said it brought in NIS 168 million in net income in the first nine months of 2017 compared to just NIS 23m. in the same period last year.
Since the beginning of 2017, the company reported NIS 3.1 billion in revenue compared to less than a third of that in 2016. The company said it plans to repay NIS 800m. in bonds in the coming year.
HOT is owned by Altice, a Netherlands-based multinational telecommunications company founded and headed by Patrick Drahi.
“We will continue to improve on all of the different parameters and our customer service,” said CEO Tal Granot Goldstein “The third quarter shows a recognizable increase and growth. The company offers a wide-range of products that allows each and every customer to choose what suits them the best.”
In recent years, HOT has faced numerous challenges in the cable TV space, as well as in the Internet and cellular industry.
The company is planning to finalize a rebranding plan in the middle of 2018 at an investment of several million shekels.
HOT currently provides services to more than one million customers in Israel. The number of cable TV customers dropped over the last year by 19,000 to 797,000 as some of the customers left for companies such as Cellcom and Partner.
During the last quarter, a partnership agreement between Rami Levy TV was revealed, alongside the launch of a new package called “Next,” which targets young adults and is meant to compete with some of HOT’s cheaper competitors.
This helped stop the departure of additional customers.
In the cellular field, HOT leads the market in new customers for a third-straight year.
It currently has 1.56 million customers and revenue per customer increased from NIS 50 to NIS 53. With 83MB, HOT also reportedly has the fastest Internet connection in the Israeli market.