Idea Cellular Q1 PAT seen up 25.5% at Rs 300 cr

Telecom operator's revenues are seen going up by 4.5% to Rs 5,606 crore during the same period.

EBITDA is expected to go up by 12% to QoQ Rs 1,520 crore in the first quarter of FY13. EBITDA margin is likely to be improved at 27.1% versus 25.3% QoQ.

Operational parameters

Analysts expect average revenue per user (ARPU) flat at Rs 160 while revenue per minute (RPM) is likely to fall by 1.6% to 41.5 paise from 42.2 paise in previous quarter.

RPM is expected to be decline for the second consecutive quarter. In March quarter, RPM was down by 2.5% (after improving from Q1 to Q3).

Minutes of usage (MOU) are seen going up by 1.58% to 385 from 379 during the same period.

Q1 expectations

Revenues are expected to be strong led by good MOU and subscriber growth. Margins are also set to improve as Q4 had a one off impact of Rs 140-150 crore.

Volume growth is likely to be around 6% as against 9.1% in the previous quarter.

3G tariffs were reduced sharply (70%+) during the quarter.