Sistema Shyam Teleservices Ltd’s (SSTL) net loss widened 22 per cent to Rs 643.9 crore for the first quarter ended March 31, 2013, impacted mainly by the shutdown of operations across 13 telecom circles.
The service provider had posted a net loss of Rs 527.8 crore during the same period of the previous financial year. Its revenues fell 14 per cent to Rs 352 crore during the quarter under review (Rs 407.2 crore), the company said in a statement.
The fall in revenues is mainly due to the closure of the circles, overall licence uncertainties and new regulatory requirements for customer registration. The number of subscribers was further affected due to the strict control over sales and marketing expenditures, said SSTL, the Indian subsidiary of the Russian conglomerate Sistema.
“The operating environment for SSTL finally became stable by the end of the first quarter 2013, with the company participating in auctions and winning spectrum in eight circles. The key focus now is to drive growth across all business lines in a profitable and sustainable manner, in sync with company’s data centric voice enabled strategy,” said Vsevolod Rozanov, President and Chief Executive Officer, SSTL.
The company also said that it is yet to be allocated spectrum that the company won in the auction held in March, Rozanov said, adding that it continues to use the spectrum held before the auction.
Sistema Shyam, which offers services under the MTS brand, is a joint venture between Russia’s Sistema JSFC and India’s Shyam Group.
Subscriber base falls
SSTL’s mobile subscriber base fell 20 per cent to 11.92 million (quarter-on-quarter basis) as of March 31, 2013. Revenues for the company, which is unlisted in India, from non-voice services including data and mobile value added services, fell 13 per cent to Rs 125.5 crore during the quarter.
However, operating income before depreciation and amortisation (operating loss) narrowed to Rs 211 crore (Rs 362 crore). During the quarter, SSTL’s blended mobile average revenue per user rose 2.5 per cent to Rs 81, while minutes of usage rose 10 per cent to Rs 295.