 "Vodafone store")
Increased data traffic and new subscribers buoyed the revenues and operating income of Vodafone India in the first half of the current financial year.
The country’s second largest telecom operator, which is looking at listing in the near future, reported a revenue of Rs 22,902 crore in the first six months of 2015-16, up 6.2 per cent from the corresponding period a year ago. Adjusting for the impact of a drop in interconnect charges, the company’s service revenue grew 11.2 per cent.
Vodafone’s operating profit (earnings before interest and tax) during the same period rose 17.3 per cent to £234 million, or Rs 2,348 crore. The operating margin expanded 0.2 percentage points to 29.7 per cent, year on year.
“Growth in data demand was partially offset by a number of regulatory changes, including mobile termination rate cuts, roaming price caps and an increase in service tax. Excluding this impact, service revenue growth in the first half was 11.2 per cent,” said Sunil Sood, chief executive officer of Vodafone India.
Service revenue during the six months was Rs 21,883 crore (£2,213 million), up 6.2 per cent from the same period a year ago. The revenue slipped, though, compared with the £2,248 million revenue reported in October-March 2014-15. The company attributed the drop in sequential revenue to cheaper call rates. Vodafone also managed to increase its revenue market share by 0.4 per cent to 22.4 per cent.
The company’s subscriber base increased by 8.2 per cent, year on year, to 188.2 million in the first half of 2015-16. Its rural subscriber base now stands at 99.3 million, more than half of its total consumers in India.
Vodafone’s average revenue per user remained stable at Rs 204.
Voice revenue, affected by a cut in roaming rates, inter-network connect charges and higher service tax, dropped to 33.9 paise per minute, a 10 per cent decline from 37.6 paise during April-September 2014. Revenue from data grew 55.9 per cent, year on year, during the first half of 2015-16 to Rs 3,979 crore and became 15 per cent of total services revenue.
During July-September 2015-16, Vodafone’s browsing revenue represented 18.9 per cent of its service revenue, up from 13.5 per cent in the same quarter last year.
“Driven by the strong uptake in data, our 3G revenue grew 102 per cent, year on year. We will launch our 4G services beginning December 2015 in five circles that are key to our data revenue and will continue to expand our 3G coverage to 16 circles,” said Sood.
The company has earmarked a capital expenditure of Rs 8,500 crore in 2015-16, of which Rs 3,627 crore was spent in the first six months. The company said it had started preparations for an initial public offering.
Vodafone’s mobile wallet business M-Pesa had 665,000 active customers in September 2015. Vodafone India was granted approval by the Reserve Bank of India in August to set up a payments bank.
