Tata Communications Q3 results: Profit tumbles 88.6% to Rs 44.81 crore

Tata Communications on Thursday reported an 88.6 per cent drop in its third-quarter net profit to Rs 44.81 crore. The firm had a net profit of Rs 393.88 crore in October-December 2022.

It posted revenue from operations at Rs 5,633.26 crore in October-December 2023, up 24.4 per cent as against Rs 4,528.34 crore during the third quarter of FY23, the firm said in a statement.

Following the Supreme Court ruling that held that licence fee paid at regular intervals should be classified as capital expenditure, the telecom company said that it created a tax provision for Rs 185.52 crore towards interest and Rs 21.09 crore towards tax (net), due to change in effective tax rate on account of adoption of new tax regime. This was recorded as an exceptional item.

Data Revenue rose 28.5 per cent to Rs 4,618 crore. Digital portfolio revenue grew by 78.2 per cent, contributing about 45 per cent to the data portfolio. Consolidated EBITDA stood at Rs 1,134 crore, improving by 5.3 per cent year-on-year and 11.7 per cent quarter-on-quarter.

Commenting on the results, AS Lakshminarayanan, MD and CEO, Tata Communications, said: "Even as we increase our impetus on people and platforms to deliver long-term value, our acquisitions of Oasis, The Switch and Kaleyra have created new avenues for growth and innovation. We remain confident about our medium-term ambitions." Kabir

Ahmed Shakir, Chief Financial Officer, Tata Communications, said: "We are extremely encouraged that Kaleyra has turned EBITDA positive in the first quarter itself, in line with our 'Fit to Grow' strategy. “We are excited about the medium term as we see multiple levers to maximise value from both our organic and inorganic investments. We continue strongly on the new growth trajectory with robust cash flow generation as the focus."

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