Vodafone Idea Q2 Results: Revenue Meets Estimates, Loss Widens
Vodafone Idea's average revenue per user rose to Rs 142 in the second quarter.
Telecom major Vodafone Idea Ltd.'s second quarter revenue remained flat, meeting estimates.
The company's revenue was up 0.5% sequentially to Rs 10,716 crore for the quarter ended September, according to an exchange filing on Thursday. That compares with the Rs 10,798.4-crore consensus estimate of analysts tracked by Bloomberg.
Vodafone Idea Q2 Results: Key Highlights (QoQ)
Ebitda up 3% at Rs 4,282.80 crore (Bloomberg estimate: Rs 4,193.9 crore).
Margin at 39.97% vs 39.2% (Bloomberg estimate: 38.8%).
Net loss expanded to Rs 8,737.9 crore, as compared with Rs 7,840 crore (Bloomberg estimate: Rs 7,197.6 crore).
The Aditya Birla-backed telecom company's average revenue per user rose 2% sequentially to Rs 142, as compared with Rs 139 in the first quarter.
Its 4G subscriber base grew to 124.7 million in the July-September quarter as against 122.9 million in April-June. The overall subscriber base, however, shrunk to 219.8 million from 221.4 million in the June quarter.
Following the Oct. 16 Supreme Court ruling that held that licence fee paid at regular intervals should be classified as capital expenditure, the telecom company said that it created a tax provision for Rs 822 crore and applicable interest.
"This decision does not result in a permanent disallowance but leads to a staggered allowance of Revenue Share License Fee over the balance period of the licence, resulting into lower taxable deduction in the initial years of a licence and a higher deduction in the later period of the licence," it said.
Over the years, the company has acquired various licences from the Department of Telecom, and also acquired companies having telecom licences and merged these entities into the company resulting in cancellation of licences pertaining to those entities on merger, it said.
Debt Position
The total gross debt, excluding lease liabilities and including interest accrued, stood at Rs 2.13 lakh crore, as of Sept. 30. It comprises deferred spectrum payment obligations of Rs 1.35 lakh crore and AGR liability of Rs 68,180 crore that are due to the government.
Debt from banks and financial institutions reduced 48% to Rs 7,860 crore from the second quarter of the previous fiscal. Optionally Convertible Debentures amounted to Rs 1,610 crore.
The net debt stood at Rs 2.13 lakh crore.
Shares of Vodafone Idea closed 1.38% lower as compared with a 1.39% loss in the benchmark NSE Nifty 50 before the results were announced.
