Idea Cellular Q2 profit up 69%

The growth was on the back of strong subscriber addition and surge in data usage

IIdea Cellular, the country’s third largest operator, on Monday reported a 69 per cent jump in consolidated net profit for the July-September quarter, beating estimates of analysts.

The growth was on the back of strong subscriber additions and surge in data usage. However, sequential growth remained mute during the seasonally weak quarter.

Idea Cellular’s consolidated net profit grew to Rs 755.9 crore for the quarter, from Rs 447.6 crore reported in the corresponding quarter previous year. Analysts had estimated Idea Cellular’s net profit at around Rs 650 crore.

“The company is well geared to meet all volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous developments and remains on course of its mission to improve its market standing both in mobile voice and data business,” the company said in a statement on Monday.

Standalone revenue of Idea Cellular stood at Rs 7,567.3 crore, a 19.8 per cent annual growth backed by a 17 per cent annual increase in voice minutes of usage and a 125.9 per cent jump in mobile data volume year-on-year basis, the company added.

Mobile data volume grew 21 per cent from the previous quarter.

“Idea Cellular is pleased to reverse the last two years of sequential revenue decline during the seasonally weak July-September quarter due to contraction in voice minutes of usage with an absolute revenue growth of Rs 111 million,” Idea Cellular said in a statement.

The average revenue per user improved to Rs 176 as against Rs 164 in Q2 FY14.

In September, the company added about 1.7 million new subscribers, according to data published by the Cellular Operators Association of India.

Idea Cellular stocks last traded 4.61 per cent up at Rs 161.05 on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Monday, before the company announced its quarterly results.