Telecom operator Vodafone Idea (Vi) on May 16 reported a net loss of Rs 7,674 crore for the quarter ended 31 March, 2024. The company's loss widened in the quarter under review from Rs 6,418.9 crore in the year-ago period.
Revenue from operations increased marginally at Rs 10,606 crore from Rs 10,531 crore in the same quarter last fiscal.
The company's average revenue per user (ARPU), which provides insights into the revenue generated from each user, grew marginally to Rs 146 from Rs 145 in the previous quarter (Q3FY24) and Rs 135 in same quarter last fiscal, primarily aided by change in entry-level plan and subscriber upgrades.
Vi also mentioned that during the quarter, it posted the highest post-merger quarterly EBITDA of Rs. 2,180 crore; up 5.4 percent on YoY basis.
EBITDA margin stood at 40.9 percent as against 40 percent YoY.
Commenting on the earnings report, Akshaya Moondra, CEO, Vodafone Idea Limited, said “We are pleased to report annual revenue and EBITDA (preIndAS) growth for the second consecutive year on the back of consistently improving performance for last several quarters despite significantly lower investments; a clear reflection of our execution capabilities."
On 4G growth, Moondra added, "We registered growth in ARPU and 4G subscribers for 11 successive quarters. Our equity fund raise of ~Rs. 215 billion will enable us to kickstart the investment cycle to expand our 4G coverage as well as launch of 5G services to effectively participate in the industry growth opportunities. We are engaged with our lenders for tying up debt funding towards the execution of our overall network expansion plan.”
The telco recently raised Rs 18,000 crore through the largest follow-on public offering (FPO) in India.
Updating on the debt fundraising, the telco said that it is in discussions with a consortium of banks to raise to Rs 25,000 crore and additional non-fund-based facilities of up to Rs. 10,000 crore. "Post the Telecom reforms package in September 2021, our bank exposure has reduced by ~Rs. 34,600 crore," it said.
Vodafone Idea said that it will utilise equity funding, and debt funding including non-fund-based facilities primarily towards capex which is expected to be in the range of Rs 50,000 crore to Rs 55,000 crore over the next 3 years.
The capex will be towards expanding 4G population coverage in 17 priority circles, 5G launch in key cities/geographies and capacity expansion to address the increasing data demand.
The telco's capex is focused towards 17 priority circles to expand high-speed broadband network coverage and capacity by rolling out new 4G sites on the existing locations, upgrading the core and transmission networks as well as refarming 2G/3G spectrum to 4G. These 17 circles account for ~98 percent of the telco's revenues.
Vodafone Idea also said that it shut down 3G completely in 6 circles with Kerala getting added to the list of 5 other circles; namely Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Mumbai and Kolkata where 3G spectrum is completely reframed to 4G.
The telco said its 4G subscriber base continued to grow for the eleventh successive quarter. The 4G subscriber base stood at 126.3 million at the end of Q4FY24 vs 122.6 million in Q4FY23, an addition of 3.7 million 4G
subscribers over last one year.
The overall subscriber base stood at 212.6 million. The total data traffic for the quarter witnessed a YoY growth of 4.3 percent.
Shares of Vodafone Idea on My 16 closed 0.30 percent lower at Rs 13.15 apiece on BSE.
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