Reliance Communications’ Q3 net rises 2.7 per cent to Rs108 crore

Reliance Communications (Rcom), the telecom operator controlled by billionaire Anil Ambani, has posted a marginal 2.7-per cent rise in consolidated net profit at Rs108 crore.

This, however, according to the industry is below expectations, especially the quarter being a seasonally strong third quarter.

The telecom company, which straddles both GSM and CDMA services, had posted a net profit of Rs105 crore during the comparable quarter a year ago.

The Mumbai-headquartered company's revenues rose 1.9 per cent to Rs5,403 crore, compared with Rs5,301 crore posted during the same period a year ago. The company's EBITDA rose 11.6 per cent to Rs1,845 crore from Rs1,653 crore in Q3 previous year.

EBITDA margin at 34.2 per cent was amongst the highest in the industry, with strong contribution from both India and global businesses.

On the key financial metrics, RCom's revenues per minute (RPM) rose 5.1 per cent from year ago quarter to 43.5 paise, while voice RPM rose 8.4 per cent to 33.5 paise.

This was on back the tariff hikes and strong focus on paid and profitable minutes, the company said.

Its average revenues per user (ARPU), another key metric, rose 11.6 per cent to Rs125 during the reporting quarter. However, in line with the industry, RCom's minutes of usage (MoU) fell 1.8 per cent to 101.9 billion.

The total data traffic rose 85.2 per cent to 41,702 million MB (YoY) on increase in data subscribers and higher data usage per customer. The total data customer base rose 31.2 per cent to 36.2 million, which includes 11.1 million 3G customers.

Earlier this year, RCom made a full scheduled repayment of two other syndicated external commercial borrowings totaling $1 billion (Rs6,200 crore), and bilateral ECB loans of more than $310 million (Rs1,900 crore).

With these repayments, RCOM has now fully liquidated the borrowings from 23 foreign banks and financial institutions.

RCom shares closed down 1.10 per cent at Rs125.30 on Friday, ahead of the earnings declaration, on the BSE, which closed up 0.32 per cent.