 "Idea PAT down by 74% in Q1")
Idea's consolidated numbers include Idea standalone as well as its share in Indus Towers (the tower operating joint venture with Bharti Airtel and Vodafone) and Aditya Birla Idea Payments Bank. Consolidated revenue (including other income) increased 7.2 per cent to Rs 9,552.4 crore against Rs 8,909 crore in the year-ago period.
Net sales grew 7.9 per cent year-on-year to Rs 9,484 crore. An analysts' poll by Bloomberg had estimated the company to post a consolidated net profit of Rs 461.9 crore.
Also Read
On a standalone basis, the company reported a net PAT of Rs 160 crore, a decline of 81 per cent against Rs 842.6 crore in the corresponding quarter in the year-ago period. Total income increased 7.1 per cent to Rs 9,500.7 crore from Rs 8,865.1 crore.
On operational front, there was a 15 per cent increase in network expenses, coupled with 36 per cent increase in depreciation. This added to the 15 per cent jump in overall expenditure. Given higher operational costs, profit at the operating level was up just 3.2 per cent to Rs 3,074 crore. "The financial performance is not comparable with the first quarter of FY16 as the results include the full impact of spectrum acquired by Idea in March 2015, with the investment of Rs 30,140 crore, and the February 2014 auction, with investment of Rs 10,420 crore for renewal of mobile licenses in nine service areas that expired between December 2015 and April 2016," said Himanshu Kapania, managing director, Idea Cellular.
"We also acquired spectrum for 3G and 4G services in multiple circles. Additional deferment consequent to the change in terms regarding carry forward conditions of unused data entitlement in data packs has negatively impacted the quarter's revenue by Rs 127.6 crore, Ebidta by Rs 110.1 crore and Ebitda margin by 0.7 per cent."
The Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) margin grew 33.1 per cent against Ebidta margin of 33.9 per cent last year.
"This time our strategy was volume growth led strategy. Since January, we have clamped down on promotional offers for customers, which has resulted in improvement in voice realisation," he said.
The realised rate from voice services rose 3.1 per cent to 34.3 paise a minute this quarter, compared with 33.3 paise in March quarter, on back of 4.4 per cent sequential quarterly rate improvement in Q4 FY16 over Q3 FY16.
"However, full benefit of voice rate realisation improvement did not reflect in revenue growth, primarily because subscriber addition was negative by 0.7 million and the voice minute of use declined by 1.1 per cent to 199.3 billion over the Jan-March quarter," said Kapania.
On data front, sequentially, mobile data volume grew 13.2 per cent to 93.1 billion MB (megabyte) in the quarter, while mobile data users rose by 5 million, taking overall mobile data user base to 49 million. Realisation from data services declined 7.86 per cent to 21.1 per MB over the March quarter. Average revenue per user (ARPU) from data services was Rs 142 for the quarter against Rs 147 a year before. The data usage per subscriber stood at 674 MB, as against 599 MB last year.
The mobile data revenue contribution, at present, stands at 20.6 per cent of 'Service Revenue' while overall 'Non Voice Revenue' (including data) contribution has increased to 28.2 per cent, compared with 26.1 per cent in Q1 FY16, the company stated.
Idea capex spend stood at Rs 1,080 crore in the June quarter. It added 5,296 4G sites during the quarter, reaching to 19,939 4G sites in 10 service areas.
Net debt as on end-June was Rs 37,660 crore, including all the deferred payment liability to the government for spectrum purchased in auctions.
The quarter has been a lukewarm one for the sector. India's top two telecom services provider posted mixed results last month. Analysts had already predicted a lower growth in data revenue for mobile operators.
Bharti Airtel, the country's top mobile operator, posted a 31 per cent fall in consolidated net profit to Rs 1,462 crore for the June quarter over last year, owing to higher spectrum costs and adverse foreign-exchange loss due to devaluation of the Nigerian currency, naira. Its total revenues rose 7.9 per cent to Rs 25,546 crore, while India revenues stood at Rs 19,155 crore for the first quarter, up 10.3 per cent over last year. Mobile data revenue from India during the quarter grew 35.1 per cent to Rs 3,525 crore over a year ago period.
The country's second largest mobile operator, Vodafone India reported a 3.4 per cent drop in revenue to £1,519 million (Rs 13,342 crore) for the June quarter, mainly on account of lower roaming income and cut in mobile termination rates. The company said its data browsing revenue growth at 22.3 per cent slowed from the pace of prior quarters, reflecting lower customer growth. Vodafone India had reported 55 per cent growth in data revenues for the first six months of the previous fiscal and it grew 45 per cent for the full fiscal year 2016.