Henderson Cyber loss balloons by 378pc
Henderson Cyber, the Growth Enterprise Market-listed technology flagship of Henderson Land Development, reported losses in the year to June 30 grew 378.48 per cent on a pro-forma basis, to HK$84.25 million.
The company's losses expanded despite HK$45.35 million of interest income on HK$894 million of proceeds from its share offering and listing in July last year.
Henderson Cyber, set up in January last year, provides Internet access using wireless technology. It offers Internet access and content services delivered via television and is engaged in Internet security.
Turnover in the year jumped to HK$28.3 million from HK$5.5 million a year earlier.
Most of Henderson Cyber's turnover was derived from Internet service subscription fees and rental income from set-top boxes for the company's television-Internet service.
The company has recruited 145,000 subscribers for its 'Internet-on-TV' service.
The firm has offered free Internet access to customers of Hong Kong and China Gas, a subsidiary of Henderson Land since July last year.
About 15,000 customers signed up to a fee-based Internet access service it launched in January.
The company launched a television-based online stock trading service in co-operation with two brokerages.
Henderson Cyber has also started a high-speed Internet access service targeting small-to-medium sized enterprises, using wireless technology.
Analysts said the company - a latecomer to the market - faced fierce competition in the Internet access and online broking markets, which had seen aggressive fee discounting.
Despite keen competition, the company said it would not exit the wireless Internet access business and was targeting a modest 1 per cent share of the broadband sector.
It promised to commit HK$220 million over three years in its network roll-out.
