Saw good growth in voice biz, margins in Q2: Tata Comm

Telecom company Tata Communications reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 6.02 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2015. Speaking to CNBC-TV18, CFO Pratibha Advani says the company saw its core business improve and that was  reflected in the Q2 EBITDA growth.Below is the verbatim transcript of Pratibha Advani's interview with Latha Venkatesh & Sonia Shenoy on CNBC-TV18.Latha: What drove the profit and is it sustainable?A: Our Q2 and H1 performance was a clear reflection of the way our core business is shaping and our core business comprises of both voice and data. So, there has been a sharper focus on cost coupled with operating and financial leverage that we are seeing in our business. This is what has resulted in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) growth of 15.5 percent year-on-year (Y-o-Y).Also if you look at the way our data growth engine has been growing, we have been able to maintain healthy growth rate with Q2 revenues, which are up by 16.9 percent. Within our data, our servers and product portfolios are performing very well. So, this is our product such as VPN and our transformation services.Sonia: Your voice segment has done very well this time around. Is this improvement in voice margin sustainable in the second half of the year?A: We did see a favourable market share in voice, this is on the India termination front and we were able to capitalise on that window of opportunity very effectively. However, our strategy continues to be to perceive profitable growth and margins rather to drive and focus on volumes. Voice is a very dynamic business, it has a lot of volatility and hence it is very difficult to predict how long such opportunities will last or continue.However, for us voice business is significant as you are aware we are the largest wholesale voice providers and this business is significant for us for the free cashflow that it generates and even for the half year this year it has generated free cashflows of close to 45 million.So we will continue to capitalise on the opportunity that voice provides and it gives us a big push in continuing to grow our absolute EBITDA and increase our free cashflow generation.Latha: Can you update us on Neotel?A: Things are moving well in that direction. We have already got two regulatory approvals in place. We are awaiting the third. So hopefully early next year, we should be able to close that transaction.