Telenor India loss widens to Rs 286 cr

Revenues of the company increased to Rs 1,080 cr

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Telenor India’s operating loss widened to  NOK 373 million (Rs 286 crore) in the September 2015 quarter from NOK 195 million (Rs 149.26 crore) in the year-ago period.

However, the company’s revenues increased to NOK 1,411 million (Rs 1,080 crore) from NOK 1,074 million (Rs 822 crore). The average revenue per user (Arpu) fell 12 per cent to Rs 91. “The decline was primarily driven by lower voice consumption and the impact from reduced mobile interconnect rate, partly compensated by increased data usage. The reduced interconnect rate impacted Arpu negatively by Rs 4,” said Telenor.

The growth in subscriptions and the decline in Arpu resulted in a revenue growth of seven per cent in local currency.

The company had on September 23, 2015, changed its name from Uninor to Telenor India. The re-branding costs resulted in the earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (Ebitda) for the full quarter turning negative. It also reported a negative Ebitda of NOK 58 million for the quarter. It had reported an Ebitda profit of NOK 24 million in the preceding quarter and NOK 136 million Ebitda loss in third quarter of the previous financial year.

“As a result of the accelerated depreciation and write-downs of network inventories of NOK 184 million as well as costs related to the re-branding of the operation, the operating profit developed negatively compared to the same quarter last year,” the company said.

Telenor India CEO Vivek Sood said after the brand name change, the company has reinforced its strategy of being the most affordable brand.

The company said during the quarter, a project to modernise the network was initiated and this impacted the capex for the quarter, as well as accelerated depreciation of current network assets. “This is expected to continue over the next 12-18 months,” the company added.

“Telenor is showing positive growth trends. We have taken cognizance of the data consumption trends and through our network modernisation project, we’re getting future ready to deliver high-speed internet services to further delight our customers relevant services,” said Sood.

The company said 22 per cent of customers were active data users. It has 48 million users. It added one million net additions for the quarter, compared to 1.3 million net additions in the preceding quarter. It operates in six circles currently - Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh East and Uttar Pradesh West for the quarter. It has licence to offer services in Assam circle, but yet to launch operations.