Idea Cellular, country's third largest operator, on Monday posted 69% growth in the September quarter consolidated net profit at Rs 755.88 crore, driven by a jump in revenue on coverage expansion and greater voice and date consumption.
On stand-alone basis, the Aditya Birla Group firm's net income almost doubled to Rs 779.4 crore, as against 398.5 crore in the year-ago period. The profit was also boosted by a bonus from its tower arm which paid a dividend of Rs 103 crore during the second quarter of the current fiscal. Idea's subscriber base has grown by 20.5 million on a net basis over the last year, while the usage was up 17% at 162.5 billion minutes overall. There was a 126.5 % jump in data consumption, the company's Managing Director Himanshu Kapania said.
The Mumbai-based firm registered 19.7% increase in revenues at Rs 7,569.92 crore in Q2, 2014-15 from Rs 6,323.26 crore in the year-ago period. Factors like the monsoons affect usage, but higher customer additions helped, while sequential (Q-o-Q) decline in the minutes of usage was less pronounced, Kapania said. On the data front, Kapania said this was the first quarter where the three-month revenue crossed Rs 1,000 crore and there is a considerable headroom higher for growth.
Only 13.3% of the company's total user base has a data connection at present, and when it comes to the high revenue 3G services, the penetration is only 9.3%, even though 17% of the customers own a 3G device. Chief financial officer Akshaya Moondra said the company raised Rs 750 crore in equity through a preferential allotment of shares during the quarter, on top of the Rs 3,000-crore raised in the preceding June quarter though the same route. This has helped the company retire some of its debt and de-leverage its balance sheet and net debt now stands at Rs 11,826 crore against Rs 13,976 crore in the June quarter.
He said this will help the company bid for the upcoming 2G spectrum auctions in both the 900 and the 1800 MHz bands and added Idea will be looking at bidding in nine circles where the spectrum is up for renewal. The spectrum where the company is interested in bidding carries a base price of Rs 10,000 crore, he added. The company does not plan to raise any more capital and retiring of debt will happen only through funds earned from operations, he added. The company scrip rallied 4.61% to Rs 161.05 on the BSE, where the benchmark Sensex ended the session with a gain of 1.23%.
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