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Idea Cellular posted a 28.9 per cent rise in consolidated net profit of Rs 308.18 crore for fourth quarter ended March 31, beating street estimates. The GSM operator had posted a net profit of Rs 238.98 crore during the comparable quarter a year ago.
The Aditya Birla group company’s total income rose to Rs 6,061.38 crore during the quarter under review, compared with Rs 5,369.69 crore in the same period a year ago.
“Contrary to expectations, there was no improvement in call rates. The growth happened due to an increase in minutes and increase in data usage, while the win back of seven circles in 2012 spectrum auctions also helped,” Idea Cellular Managing Director Himanshu Kapania said.
Idea’s minutes of usage rose 8.5 per cent to 143.4 billion on a sequential basis, while data volume expanded by 13.8 per cent to 11.4 billion MB. However, average realised rate per minute was flat nearly at 41.2 paise.
On an average, analysts were expecting the company to post a net profit of about Rs 280 crore.
ARPU rises
The company’s Average Revenue Per User increased to Rs 167 from Rs 158 while the EBITDA margins has grown by 2.3 percentage points to 27.6 per cent. The company, which has been in operations for the past 16 years, has recommended a maiden dividend of 30 paise or 3 per cent. The total payout for the dividend would be Rs 116 crore.
Idea Cellular, which had launched its Initial Public Offering in 2007, has more than 2.7 lakh retail shareholders.
The company’s net debt as of March 31 stood at Rs 11,588 crore. It has earmarked a capex of Rs 3,500 crore for FY14, which would be used for expansion of network and services.
“The capex guidance excludes any spectrum related payout,” its Chief Financial officer Akshaya Moondra said. He said the forex impact was negligible as exchange rate has been “flat”.
Tax issue
On the recent Rs 3,900-crore tax slapped by the Income Tax Department on Idea Cellular and its subsidiary Aditya Birla Telecom Ltd (ABTL), Kapania said the company was of opinion that it was against “current practices”. “It was erroneous. We have appealed against it,” he added.
During the quarter, the company added 2,432 GSM and 1,595 3G sites, expanded optical fibre network to 74,000 km.
On Thursday, shares of the company closed up 1.22 per cent at Rs 116.25 on the BSE.
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