Reliance Jio could lose Rs 15,000 crore this financial year: Bernstein

To make a positive return on investment, the carrier will have to reduce handset subsidies and increase revenue from users, according to Bernstein

Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd., India’s most profitable wireless carrier, could lose as much as Rs 150 billion ($2.1 billion) this fiscal year when costs such as handset subsidies are included, according to analysts at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. That would be a bigger deficit than those of its larger Indian rivals Bharti Airtel Ltd. and Vodafone Idea Ltd., even though the company known as Jio will probably overcome them over the next 12 months in terms of service revenue and subscribers, analysts Chris Lane and Samuel Chen wrote in a note to clients dated February 26. The fiscal year