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Idea Cellular’s consolidated net profit has nearly doubled to ₹589.77 crore during the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2014, due to increase in voice and data volumes, bettering street expectations.
The country’s third largest GSM operator has posted a 91.4 per cent rise in net profit from ₹308.18 crore reported during the same quarter a year ago.
“Growth was primarily driven by an increase in volume, and also due to an increase in minutes of growth,” Idea Cellular Managing Director Himanshu Kapania said at a press conference.
The Aditya Birla group company’s revenue rose by 16.2 per cent to ₹7,043.82 crore, compared with ₹6,061.38 crore, posted during the comparable period a year ago.
The company posted an 8.6 per cent rise in voice minutes to 157.1 billion minutes from the sequential quarter. Mobile data volume (2G+3G) grew 31 per cent to 27.3 billion.
“These indicate that there was a strong consumer demand for our services,” he added.
ARPU rises The company’s average revenue per user rose to ₹173 from ₹169 recorded in third quarter, and subscriber churn fell by 1.4 per cent to 4.2 per cent versus the sequential quarter. “The intensity of competition has come down, which is reflected in the fall of churn (subscriber moving to other networks),” Kapania added.
For the financial year ended March 31, 2014, Idea Cellular’s net profit rose 94.6 per cent to ₹1,967.82 crore (₹1,010.93 crore) and revenue by 18.08 per cent to ₹26,518.91 crore (₹22,457.65 crore).
Price hike Idea Cellular would continue to “tweak” prices, cutting down on promotional and free minutes, much in line with the industry.
“The industry’s returns on investments are way below expectations and there is a need to improve,” Kapania added.
Stating that the industry’s growth has been “muted” during the last financial year, he expressed hope that the industry would post double digit growth in this financial year.
Idea Cellular, which had spent about ₹3,500 crore on capex, would continue to maintain that level on equipment (other than spectrum), he added.
The GSM operator, which has 10.2 million 3G users, is also looking at expanding its footprint to 12 circles from the present 10.
The company’s board recommended a dividend of ₹0.40 per equity share.
Idea Cellular’s share prices ended 0.18 per cent higher to close at ₹140.75 on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Monday.
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