BPL US West Cellular Ltd, the cellular service provider in Maharashtra (excluding Mum-bai), Goa, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, has incurred losses of Rs 360 crore on a sales revenue of Rs 109 crore for the year ending March 31.
The company is promoted jointly by the Nambiars and US West Inc. It posted losses of Rs 230.8 crore on a turnover of Rs 47.6 crore in the previous year. The company's net worth was Rs 594 crore as on March 31, 1998.
The group, which does not make public its results, has told financial institutions (FIs) that the losses were incurred essentially on account of high licence fees and slow build-up of revenue due to a low growth in subscriber usage.
BPL Mobile Communications Ltd, the cellular service provider in Mumbai promoted by the Nambiars, has incurred a loss of Rs 17.9 crore on an income of Rs 242 crore for the year ending March 31.
The group's holding company _ BPL Cellular Holdings _ set up to make investments in group companies involved in cellular services, have also incurred losses of Rs 23 crore for the year ending March 31.
While the BPL group holds 66.4 per cent equity in the company, the rest is held by strategic investors like American Insur-ance Group, Asia Infrastructure Fund and Commonwealth Devel-opment Corporation.
In its presentation to the FIs, the Nambiars have pointed out that their subsriber base in Mumbai up to March 31, 1998 had reached 1,12,000. During the year ending March 31, 1998, BPL Mobile recorded a sales turnover of Rs 176 crore, gross profit of Rs 43 crore and a cash loss of Rs 14 crore.
It said the losses were typical for a greenfield cellular project.
Dismal Show
Results for 1998-99
Turnover Losses
BPL US West 109 360.0
BPL Mobile 242 17.9
BPL Cellular Holdings - 23.0
(Figures in Rs crore)
