Reliance Communications Ltd has announced the unaudited results for the quarter ended December 31, 2006. It has posted a net profit of Rs 7710.60 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2006, where as the figures for quarter ended December 31, 2005 were Rs 56.50 million.

Total income for the quarter ended December 31, 2006, was Rs 30445.10 million,  where as the same for the quarter ended December 31, 2005 was at Rs 64.70 million.

Speaking on the sidelines of the company's press conference, Anil Ambani, Chairman, Reliance Communications, said that his company’s shareholder equity or networth crossed
Rs 20,000 crore, which is more then USD 4.5 billion. Giving an outlook on his company’s debt-equity ratio, as well as its borrowing capacity, he said, “Our net debt to equity reduces further to just 0.07:1. Given our current balance sheet strength, we can potentially borrow Rs 20,000 crore on a conservative basis, or close to USD 5 billion and still maintain a debt-equity ratio of 1:1 for a company growing as rapidly as Reliance Communication. “

Ambani says that he expected the telecom service major’s capex to go up from the current figures. He said, “Our capex for the year ended March 2007 is now expected to cross USD 1.75 billion, which is about Rs 1000 crore, or USD 200 million, more than our capex guidance for the current fiscal.” The figure includes the network expansion that the company is working on right now at eight GSM circles and should be completed in the next few weeks.

On the company’s expansion drive, he said, “We have created an additional capacity of more then USD 10 million GSM lines and expanded our coverage by over 1600 towns to 2200 towns in our GSM circles.” The company will be investing USD 2.5 billion, or roughly Rs 11,000 crore in the coming financial year ending March 2008. The move, he said will support the expansion of the company’s India focused businesses.

The accelerated capex will enable the company to capture the multiple growth opportunity available. Ambani emphasised on the planned rollout and how it would help his company’s business model by adding that the capex included planned rollout on an aggressive basis of over 20,000 new towers for supporting the wireless business and will further enhance coverage and capacity on a nationwide basis. Outside India, the company’s planned investment includes the famous USD 1.5 billion FLAG NGN project.