Indus Towers sees no threat from satellite internet, eyes growth on 5G momentum and Vi payment boost

Unlike traditional networks, satellite internet delivers connectivity directly from satellites to user terminals, potentially diminishing the long-term need for tower infrastructure, particularly in rural areas.

The tower infrastructure company's management said that the key highlight of the last fiscal year was the clearance of a large portion of overdue receivables from Vodafone Idea, which had a positive impact on its cash flows and overall financial health.

In FY25, Vodafone Idea cleared about Rs 5,100 crore dues it owed to Indus Towers.

“Our continued engagement with a major customer (Vodafone Idea) ensured recovery of its overdues this year," Sah said.

“We achieved significant power and tenancy growth, driven by our customers, network expansion and strengthened by the full clearance of our overdues,” Vikas Poddar, CFO of Indus Towers, said.

The company said that it is well-positioned to benefit from the ongoing 5G rollout, as well as the rising demand for data consumption and opportunities for industry consolidation.

Sah said the tower company is looking to grow organically, similar to the acquisition of Airtel towers, to increase its market share. Additionally, it aims to grow through the expansion of telco customers' 4G and 5G rollout plans, resulting from new tower installations and increased tenancy.

"Given that now we have the backlog issue behind us…the strategy includes aggressively pursuing market share through both organic and inorganic routes as demonstrated by our acquisition of Bharti Airtel’s towers," Sah said.

During the quarter, the company also completed the acquisition of 12,774 towers from Bharti Airtel for Rs 2,174 crore.

With the scale of the tower company, Sah said Indus is working on transforming our site infrastructure and leveraging digital solutions and AI to create new benchmarks of performance, which would encourage customers to move tenancies.

Analysts had anticipated that Indus Towers would announce dividend payouts during the quarter. However, the company said it has established a committee to evaluate the framework for cash distribution to shareholders and will provide updates to the stock exchanges in due course..

Last year, the company conducted a share buyback of Rs 2,640 crore, its first since 2016.

Following the company's announcement last quarter about entering the electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure space, Sah stated that a commercial pilot is currently underway.

The decision to scale up or pause the initiative will be based on the outcomes of this pilot, he added.

In the January–March quarter, Indus Towers reported a 7.4% year-on-year increase in revenue from operations, reaching Rs 7,727 crore, driven by continued network expansion by telecom operators amid rising data consumption.

However, net profit declined 4% to Rs 1,779 crore, weighed down by higher operating expenses and depreciation.

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