Reliance Jio effect: Idea Cellular registers net loss of Rs 815 crore in Q1

Key Highlights:

• Idea registered a consolidated net loss of Rs 815 crore in Q1FY18.
• Net debt as on June 30, 2017 stood at Rs 53,920 crore.
• Idea’s consolidated revenue from operations declined 13.75% to Rs 8166.5 crore.

Telecom arm of Aditya Birla Group, Idea Cellular announced its first quarter results today. The company registered a consolidated net loss of Rs 815 crore during the quarter ended June 30, 2017.

However the company reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 217 crore during the same period last year. 

“In the environment of steep rate fall and capacity expansion, EBITDA for the company during the quarter declined by 11.5% to Rs 18,753 million (Rs 1875.3 crore) compared to Rs 21,199 million (Rs 2119.9 crore) in Q4 FY17,” the company said.

Idea’s consolidated revenue from operations declined 13.75% to Rs 8166.5 crore in Q1FY18. The company had reported revenue of Rs 9486.6 crore during the same period last year.

“The upheaval in the Indian wireless industry continued in Q1FY18, despite the new entrant slowly migrating from ‘free services’ to ‘paid services’ but with heavily discounted unlimited voice and data pricing plans,” the company said.

Idea said its net debt as on June 30, 2017 stood at Rs 53,920 crore.

Idea recorded mobile data consumption at 252.8 billion MB in Q1FY18 which the company said was “nearly double the traffic consumption in Q4FY17.”

“During the quarter the sequential quarterly voice minutes grew by a healthy 8.4% to 250.7 billion minutes (vs 231.4 billion minutes in Q4FY18) while the voice realisation rate fell by 5.7% to 24.4 paisa/min (vs 25.9 paisa/Q4FY17),” the company said.