Reliance Communications has posted a 22 per cent rise in consolidated net profit at ₹132 crore, beating street estimates, during a seasonally weak first quarter helped by higher voice call rates. The telecom company, controlled by billionaire Anil Ambani, had posted a net profit of ₹108 crore during the comparable quarter a year ago.

During the quarter under review, its total income rose marginally to ₹5,354 crore from ₹5,315 crore in the same period a year ago. The company pared its net debt to ₹35,500 crore as on date from the earlier ₹40,178 crore, RCom said in a statement.

Stake sale In June, RCom raised ₹6,100 crore through a stake stale to institutional investors and preferential allotment to promoters, which was used to repay debt and reduce interest cost.

“RCom has taken a giant leap towards its endeavour to de-leverage its balance sheet…. This (fund-raising) will help in reducing interest cost by over ₹600 crore annually, which will accrue from the second quarter of financial year 2015,” RCom Chief Executive Officer Vinod Sawhny said in an analysts’ call.

The company will continue to reduce debt through various other measures such as securitisation of the tower receivables, disposal of non-core assets and monetisation of the real estates.

“We hope to bring down our debt to under ₹25,000 crore through these initiatives in the next 12 months,” Sawhny said.

RCom’s EBITDA (operating profits) rose 9.5 per cent from ₹1,701 crore in Q1 previous year, while EBITDA margin was at 33.7 per cent. The company’s average revenues per user rose 14.3 per cent at ₹136 from the previous quarter.

The company is looking at monetising its 135-acre Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City in Navi Mumbai and Reliance Centre, a marquee property in New Delhi. It expects to receive about ₹5,000 crore from the monetisation efforts, which would be used to pare debt, said Gurdeep Singh, Chief Executive Officer, Consumer Business at RCom.

Capex plan The company has also earmarked a capex of Rs 1,500-2,000 crore for FY’15, with the company only looking at investing in electronics under a capex-light strategy, Singh added.

RCom’s cash outflow for spectrum would also be minimal, Sawhny said, adding that it has only seven circles in the 900 MHz band coming up for renewal in FY’16.

“These are circles in the B and C category circles where the spectrum cost will be less. Most of the other circles will come up for renewal in FY’21. Hence, RCom will be least impacted by upcoming renewals,” Sawhny added.

Shares in RCom closed up 0.75 per cent at ₹120.70 on a strong BSE, which closed up 0.71 per cent on Thursday.

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